


sweet sleep

by wolfsupremacist



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dirty Talk, Implied Mpreg, Knotting, M/M, Magical Realism, Rimming, Scenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-04-20 13:08:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 20
Words: 63,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14261655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfsupremacist/pseuds/wolfsupremacist
Summary: On a wolf's two hundred and fiftieth moon, they Sleep.Baekhyun isn't sure what to make of his dreams when he finally awakens.





	1. silver, silver

Baekhyun lays back against furs, his spine stick straight, and he wonders how he will ever Sleep like this.

“Fear not, child. You are safe,” his mother says, her eyes warm. He must have anxiety flowing from his pores. She must smell it thick in the air.

Her hands have a shake in them when she throws another fur atop his body, this one so familiar to him that it immediately settles him in this skin. Baekhyun knows this fur. This was the fur that he was swaddled in as a pup. This was the fur Baekhyun's father brought to his Omega in celebration, finally blessed with child after many, many moons.

He had heard the story: his father, brave and strong and jubilant. The white bluebear that stood proud and terrible. A great luminescent beast slayed as gift. As beautiful as it was vicious.

Baekhyun wishes that he could stay here with them, with his parents that kept him safe.

But his two hundred and fiftieth moon is high and new in the sky, and that means it is time for his Sleep.  

“Child,” his mother chides, soft fingers brushing against his cheek. “Pup.”

“I know,” Baekhyun says. He closes his eyes. Tries to relax. “I know, I’m sorry.”

“When I went for my Sleep,” she muses, “I didn’t want it either. I didn’t want anything to change.”

 _Please,_ Baekhyun thinks, _nothing change. Please. Ancestors, Goddess, keep everything the same. Keep me unchanged. Everything needs to stay the same._

“Did it?” Baekhyun asks.

“Did what?” she responds.

“Did everything change?” Baekhyun asks quietly.

She smiles. There is the light of the Lady in her eyes. Baekhyun loves her so much. He doesn’t want to leave her. Not ever.

“Yes, my son,” his mother says. “Everything changed, and it was the greatest thing to ever happen to me.”

He squeezes his eyes shut tight.

“The Sleep brought me to your father,” she says. “The Sleep brought me you.”

Baekhyun would do anything for his mother and father. Baekhyun would never shirk his responsibilities to his pack. Baekhyun would never turn his back on tradition.

And so he sits up, places a careful hand on her cheek, and nods.

“Sweet boy,” she says. “My beautiful omega child.”

She turns and when she turns back around to face Baekhyun again, she has a small bowl in her hands, a notch in the end for sipping. It’s filled with a liquid as silver as the full moon, glittering white like a brook in the sun.

“Mother, father,” she prays, eyes to the ceiling of the hut, “protect my son. Keep him safe while he sleeps. Show him what he needs see. And return him to me when he is finished. I pray. I beg. Hear me.”

His mother places the notch of the bowl at his lips, and he drinks deeply, not pausing for breath until all the Sweet Sleep is in his belly.

It’s rich and delicious, like the warm, honeyed milk he used to drink as a puppy. Sumptuous and savory like salted venison loin. Sweet and biting like the berries his mother used to feed him from her hand.

“Dream,” his mother says.

She lays him back against the furs again, the shimmering white fur laid across him glowing bright aqua-blue for a moment.

“Sleep,” she commands.

He closes his eyes and obeys.

 

☽

 

_He is six years old, and he is hiding in the tree._

The sun is low. Dusk. The river is laughing. 

What prophecy is this, he wonders. What sort of prophecy shows what has already befallen him?

Baekhyun walks along the forest floor, barefoot, and stares up at his past self, scrawnier than he remembers being. Little Baekhyun locks eyes with him, a smudge of dirt on his face. He scowls down at Baekhyun from his place up in the tree. Shushes him with a finger to his lips.

What a strange Sleep, he thinks to himself. He steps behind the tree slightly, still watching his younger self.

Ah, Baekhyun thinks. I remember this day. I remember…

And as soon as the thought crystallizes in his head, he hears the snap of a branch. Past, present, and future all act as one as both of their heads whipping around to the sound. A little foal. Black as the night sky, spotted with a brilliant, scarlet red. The filly’s coat was shiny, and its mane was short, spiky, and streaked like fire.

A flame-mare.

It trots over quietly to the bed of the river and leans down to drink from the clear water. Little Baekhyun drops down from the tree, silent like a shadow-cat when his feet hit the earth. Baekhyun follows himself over, approaching the filly from the side.

He remembers, he _remembers_ the way his little hand stretches out quiet. All he wants in this moment, he knows, is to stroke the horse and feel it bow to him, feel the heat of the animal up close so he could brag to Jongdae and show him the little burns on his fingertips as proof. _I’m brave enough to touch a flame-mare,_ he would have said. _I can do anything._

Another twig snaps behind them.

The filly rears back and roars loud, two twin bright-orange flames breathed from its snout.

Little Baekhyun stumbles back, mouth open in shock, and he resists the urge to grab him by the collar as the flame-mare rushes past them all, the fire singeing the hair on Baekhyun’s arms.

He turns, knowing what he’d find at the source of the noise. A boy, twenty moons or so younger than Baekhyun. A boxy smile. Clean fingernails. Hair so black it looked blue in the sun.

“What are you doing here?” Little Baekhyun asks, anger evident.

“I don’t know,” the boy says. “I was looking for you, I guess.”

Little Baekhyun narrows his eyes. Suspicious.  

“Why?” he asks.

“I don’t know,” the boy says again, and he looks confused at himself.

“You scared it away, you dumb puppy,” Baekhyun says, throwing his arms out. “I was gonna pet it!”

“You would have gotten hurt,” the boy says. His eyebrows furrow. In recollection, Baekhyun thought they dominated more of his face in a funny sort of way. Now, seeing the memory again for what it really was, the boy's brow looked nervous and not at all assuming. “They’re dangerous.”

“So?” Baekhyun says.

“So I didn’t want you to get hurt,” the boy says. “You would have had to drink that stuff. It tastes so bad.”

Little Baekhyun scowls. He hated that stuff, the black paste they made with the healing flowers and minerals that all the Healers called _Cure Coal_. All crushed up and tasting like chalk in his mouth. He had broken his arm about twelve moons past, and he had to take it for three days and three nights before the bone was good as new.

“Yeah, well,” Little Baekhyun says, “I don’t care. Don’t go scaring stuff off anymore.”

His past self walks over to the boy, jabs him in the chest with a finger.

“Got it?” he says.

“I--,” the boy starts, but Little Baekhyun is already walking out of the clearing and back to his hut, the boy watching him go, Baekhyun watching them both. And then he was spiraling, spiraling, unstuck and falling.

  
☾

 

He wakes from his Sleep one moon after he lays for it, breathing out sharply like he needs to clear the cobwebs in his lungs.

Baekhyun sits up in his nest of furs, sweat matting his hair to his forehead. He throws the covers from his body, and then he looks around the room. His mother is curled up in a chair, a bouquet of flowers clutched to her chest.

Baekhyun knows the flowers like he knows the backs of his hands. The White Light Pansy that glows at night, helps guide wolves back home when they’re lost. The Dragon’s Mouth, spiked and elegant, that will bite and draw blood, but leave you stronger than before. The Sparrow Lace that got its name from a myth that was passed down in their pack, all about a beautiful witch that turned into a bird on one blessed new moon and then watched over the wolves below her. There’s Houndsblood, Starslily, and the Moon Lady’s Peony too.

All the flowers are dry in his mother’s hands. She must have gathered them all, held them to her heart, and waited for him to come back to her.

All the flowers mean luck. Health. _Life._

Because there’s always a chance that a wolf might not wake from their sleep. There’s a chance that they stay, that they never return. Spirit lost. Life lost. Ever spiraling, ever unstuck.

Goddess help him, Baekhyun thinks. At least, _he’s_ alive.

He walks over to her, and when he tries to take the dried flowers from her hands, she startles. Her eyes are bloodshot, like her sleep was not nearly as deep as Baekhyun’s. Thank the Goddess it’s over now.

“My child,” she says, nervous like she’s afraid he might be a spirit before her. “My child.”

“Mother,” he says. “I’m awake.”

Tears fall from her eyes, and he hauls her from the chair, pulling her into an embrace.

“Oh, Baekhyun,” she cries, hands in his hair. “My baby. My puppy.”

“I’m here,” he says, smiling.

“Darling child,” his mother says. She pulls him back by the shirt, a hand on his cheek. “Go find your father. He has watched over you too. Tell him what you’ve seen.”

Baekhyun smiles, but he is sad. He can’t tell anyone what he’s seen. Not even his father.

“Yes,” he says agreeably.

He pushes past the curtain, steps into the midnight air. He shifts. Howls. And oh, it feels _beautiful_ for a moment.

But he holds a secret in his heart, and he will for twenty more moons; his Sleep showed him that. There’s a tremor in his future, something jagged and terrifying.

For Oh Sehun will be his mate, and he must not know until he too has awoken from his Sleep.


	2. gilded

_Baekhyun has just turned eight years old, and he is working with the Healers._

It’s mid-morning, and it is so hot that sweat drips from Little Baekhyun’s hair and down his back. Baekhyun goes to brush hair away from the boy’s forehead, and he gets a tongue stuck out at him for his efforts. _Brat._

What is the meaning of it, he wonders. Why is he seeing the past when he should be seeing the future?

“Remember,” his mother says, “bell-root is fickle.”

“Bell-root is fickle,” he repeats.

“Only the ones that ring,” she reminds him. “They’re not much use to us without the ringing.”

Some of the puppies have trouble controlling their shifts, so his mother makes a tea that chimes a happy song for them as they drink it. It never fails. Something about the distraction makes it easier for them, she says. 

Little Baekhyun dutifully listens for the golden bells that peal out to him, and when they do, he gathers them up in his little hands and puts them in his basket. It’s cute, Baekhyun thinks now. He was a cute pup.

“Sehunnie,” his mother calls. “Hello, honey.”

Both Baekhyun and Little Baekhyun turn to see Sehun step out from the shadow of a giant oak tree, hands twisting together.

“What do you want?” Baekhyun asks.

“Baekhyun,” his mother scolds. “Be good.”

“I’m sorry,” Sehun apologizes. He looks as if he’s about to run. “I was just coming to see if you needed any help. I’m sorry.”

“Oh, honey. What a thoughtful pup you are,” she says, and she walks to pat him on the head. He smiles up at her. _Brown snout,_ he had thought. Baekhyun laughs now.

His mother holds a basket out to him, and Sehun takes it happily.

“Now then,” she says, kneeling down in front of him, “do you know about bell-root?”

“No, Omega,” he says, frowning. “My fathers both work with the guards. I don’t know much about the healing plants. I’m sorry. I’m not smart. I’m dumb.”

“Honey, you are no such thing,” his mother says. “I bet you know all about the run routes and the charms the guards use and the weapons they carry. Don’t you, puppy?”

Sehun shakes his head _yes_ eagerly.

“See? Every wolf is important, just like every job is essential,” she says. “Baekhyun's here to help you.”

“Uh…,” Little Baekhyun says, sticking out a hand like he means to quarrel with his own mother. Silly puppy, Baekhyun thinks.

“ _Baekhyun's here to help you,_ ” his mother repeats, turning back to fix him with a withering stare. “And he’ll make sure you know that _he_ only knows these things because his mother happens to be Head Healer.”

Sehun laughs out into the wood, and all of a sudden, the bell-roots all chime back at him, the air full of music. Sehun stares, eyes wide and happy, like he’s never seen something so wonderful.

“Well, look at that,” his mother says, smiling. “I think they like you.”

She turns to look at Little Baekhyun now, but for a second, her eyes lock with his, and a shiver runs through him. A ripple in the dream.  

“Go on now,” she says, shooing Little Baekhyun towards Sehun. “Get the lot of them. And teach him about the tea.”

Little Baekhyun grumbles, and Sehun comes to crouch down next to him. They pick the plants in silence for a moment or two before Sehun says something to break it.

“I’m sorry,” Sehun says.

“For what?” Baekhyun asks, even though he knows.

“Twenty four moons ago,” Sehun says. And both of his hearts tense at the precise number. “I scared that flame-mare you saw. You wanted to pet it. I’m sorry.”

Little Baekhyun makes a noise of discontent.

“Who cares about that anyway?” Baekhyun says.

“I do,” Sehun says honestly. “You haven’t spoken to me since then.”

“I never spoke to you before,” Baekhyun says.

“You’re friends with all the wolves. Jongdae and Jongin and Chanyeol and everyone,” Sehun says. “I just want to be friends.”

“Fine,” Baekhyun says. “We’re friends.”

“We’ll talk now?” Sehun asks, the hope in his voice overwhelming and pure.

“Sure,” Baekhyun says. “Now. The bell-root tea. How good are you at shifting?”

Sehun smiles, and before Baekhyun can blink again, a little white wolf with dark black-brown eyes is staring back at him.

“Don’t boast,” Baekhyun says, looking down at his hands, busy with the singing plants. “It’s not good to boast. The Lady doesn’t like a prideful wolf.”

Sehun shifts back with another bat of Baekhyun’s eyelashes.

“Sorry,” Sehun says, a little breathless. “I don’t mean it in a prideful way. It’s one of the only things I’m good at.”

“You’re fast,” Baekhyun supplies.

“Oh! Um, yeah, I guess,” Sehun says shyly. “Not as fast as Chanyeol, though.”

“No,” Baekhyun confirms, “not as fast as him.”

Sehun ducks his head.

“But you’re younger,” Baekhyun says. “You’ll get faster.”

“You think?” Sehun asks.

“Maybe,” Baekhyun says, “if you stop talking and start working.”

Sehun smiles and gets his hands busy alongside Little Baekhyun’s, and then swirling, endless tumbling through time, Baekhyun is gone.

  
☽

 

Baekhyun is accosted the next morning on his way to the river.

“Baek!” Jongdae shouts, arms wrapped tight around Baekhyun’s body.

“Dae,” Baekhyun says, struggling against the grip. “Let me go, you baby.”

“It’s been a moon,” Jongdae whines. “I missed you. Let me smell you.”

“No,” Baekhyun says.

He wriggles out of Jongdae’s arms, but it doesn’t seem to dissuade Jongdae at all, who sticks his nose to Baekhyun’s pulse at his neck.

“You smell gross,” Jongdae says, sniffing again. “Ew. Like sweat and….wet fur. Goddess, did you even bathe yet?”

“No,” Baekhyun says. “I got up in the middle of the night like most everyone else.”

Jongdae laughs breathlessly.

“You went for your Sleep, I don’t see you for a moon, and then as soon as you wake, you go back to sleep?” Jongdae asks. “You’re something else, Byun Baekhyun.”

“Yah,” Baekhyun says, “learn some manners. It’s exhausting. You’ll see soon enough.”

Jongdae looks wistful for a moment, eyes soft and crinkling.

“What?” Baekhyun asks.

“I can’t wait for my Sleep,” he says. “I already know my mate.”

“You don’t know for sure,” Baekhyun says. “Not until you see.”

“The Goddess speaks to me,” Jongdae says mysteriously. “I’ve already seen my mate in a dream. And I can’t wait to see her again.”

“Be quiet,” Baekhyun says, and he’s intensely jealous.

“Why are you such a sour snout, hm?” Jongdae asks, an arm thrown over Baekhyun’s shoulders. “Shouldn’t you be happy? Now that you know what’s in store for you? Who your mate is?”

“I can’t say,” Baekhyun says. And Jongdae knows, as all the wolves in their pack do, that if a wolf awakens and doesn’t run straight to their mate, then their mate hasn’t Slept yet. Baekhyun hopes that means no one will ask any more about what he saw.

“Ah,” Jongdae says, punching Baekhyun in the shoulder. “You always liked the young, pretty pups, huh.”

Baekhyun forces out a smile for Jongdae’s sake.

“Shut your mouth, you silly omega,” Baekhyun says. “You don’t know anything about anything.”

“I know plenty. Come on, then,” Jongdae says, dragging him quickly to the path that leads to the river. “You’ve been prone for a month now. You’ll need to wash, and then head to get some meat in you. Goddess, aren’t you just the most rawboned thing these eyes have ever seen?”

Baekhyun shoved Jongdae away, but he followed diligently. He didn’t want to stink.

  
☾

 

_Baekhyun is thirteen, and he presents as an omega._

Baekhyun figures it out while sitting around a fire with the rest of the wolves around his age, a motley crew of boys and girls who’ve barely escaped their days of wrestling to decide who gets to pick teams for the relays first. He likes them all well enough, but Jongdae, Chanyeol, Jongin, and Minseok are the boys he likes most.

He’s never heard a story of a Sleep like this, Baekhyun thinks. He wonders if he will make it out alive. Maybe this is what happens to those poor wolves who never escape. Maybe they get so caught up in the past that they never wake up.

Baekhyun notes that he’s filled out since the last memory, a growth spurt hitting him in the marrow of his bones and making all his shifts uncomfortable and cracking. He remembers that distinct pain in his thighs and behind his kneecaps.

He walks over to the bonfire, sits down next to his younger self. Little Baekhyun looks at him, sneers like a pup who’s got it all figured out. _Foolish boy._ Baekhyun just smiles back at him.   

It’s then that he realizes, poking a stick at the embers to watch them scream up and into the night sky, that he would prefer a boy for a mate when the time comes. Little Baekhyun isn’t picky then, and Baekhyun isn’t picky now. Doesn’t even particularly want a mate, when he sits down to think about it, but if he had to, if he _must_ , he decides he wants a boy.

“Oh my god,” Chanyeol says, covering his nose on instinct and then uncovering to take another sniff around Baekhyun’s collar. “You smell different.”

“Shut up,” Baekhyun says, and instead of pushing Chanyeol over and kicking a little dirt onto him for good measure, Little Baekhyun shrinks into himself.

The first time his body betrays him. Baekhyun knows it well.

“What’s he smell like?” Jongin asks, all curious eyes and nose. “Oh! You do smell different!”

“Like what?” he asks, his arms wrapped around himself.

“Like...hm,” Jongin says, taking another sniff, this time a bit closer to Baekhyun’s skin. “What is that? It’s so familiar.”

Minseok leans over, eager.

“Oh! You smell like those sleeping violets,” Minseok says. “Really sweet and nice. Huh. That must mean that you’re...”

Fear courses through him, and Baekhyun sees and can practically feel it radiating off of his former self.

“Omega.”

Both versions of himself look up, and there is Sehun’s face lit up in shivering ambers and golds from the firelight. Little Baekhyun moves, uncomfortable, and then Sehun is shaking his head like he’s trying to clear the air in front of him.

“Moon Lady above,” Junmyeon says, sitting right next to Sehun. “You presented, Baekhyun!”

And then Chanyeol is lifting him uncomfortably by the armpits up to see his parents, to tell them the good news. Little Baekhyun is scowling, and he remembers how much he disliked this day. He didn't think it was such great news.

He’s spent too long here, Baekhyun figures, because without another second, he is falling into forever once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have written about 12k for this so far, so i will be updating every couple of days, i think! 
> 
> i have a twitter (@wolfsupremacist) where i occasionally talk abt other things i'm writing. 
> 
> leave a kudos if ur liking it so far, leave a comment if ur feeling super nice. thanks for reading!!!


	3. all violet, all over

It takes getting used to. The knowledge weighs heavy on him. Every time he sees Sehun, stalking along the edge of the borders with his knives on his waist and his spear in his hand, Baekhyun feels unusually shy. Nervous.

Oh Sehun. That timid alpha. The boy with the small smile and big hands. The quick wolf with the bright white coat. The one who liked helping in the Healer’s House when he could, when he had the time to spare.

Baekhyun and Sehun were friends the way everyone in the pack were friends. They had grown up together. They survived together. They did everything together. You could hardly throw a stone without hitting another wolf.

Ever since they were kids, though, Sehun was too nice for Baekhyun. Baekhyun was mean. Biting. Snobby. He’s always wanted to push. Be pushed a bit in return.

Sehun wasn’t, _isn’t_ , that type of wolf. Sometimes he still looks at Baekhyun like a puppy, trailing along behind Baekhyun’s group of close-knit friends with Junmyeon at his side.

He wonders why Junmyeon wasn’t meant to be Sehun’s mate. Why Chanyeol isn’t meant to be Baekhyun’s. Not that Baekhyun cares, but it appeals to logic, and logic appeals to him. It just makes more sense. He and Chanyeol hang out together more. Chanyeol knows more about him. Chanyeol smells good to Baekhyun, like firewood and sea salt and alpha. Sehun smells good, too. Sweet, still undeniably _alpha_ , but so sweet. Like dessert. Like honeysuckles in summer air.

Baekhyun finishes with his tasks for the morning, the preparation for the moonlight wine and the gathering of ingredients for the next batch of Summer’s Heat that they’re starting to stockpile for the coming winter, and then pushes out of the healer’s house.

Oh Sehun stares down at him.

“Um,” Baekhyun says, “hello.”

“Hi,” Sehun says.

And then he says nothing. Just stands there, very tall with his hands behind his back. The ready stance they were taught when they were young, his back straight like he’s trying to use every inch of his height.

“Um, can I help you?” Baekhyun asks.

“Oh,” Sehun says, momentarily flustered, like he wasn’t expecting a question. “I was, um...I was just wondering how your Sleep went. I haven’t talked to you since--well, since last moon.”

Baekhyun’s stomach clenches painfully.

“Ah,” Sehun says, nose wrinkling. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to...to offend.”

“No, it’s--it’s fine,” Baekhyun says. And Goddess, Sehun is so quick to apologize for an alpha. Baekhyun doesn’t know what to do with that. “You didn’t.”

“I shouldn’t be...sniffing around you anyway,” Sehun says, and his eyes go low and he bows his head, such a blatant show of submission that it sets Baekhyun on edge, a curl of heat in his stomach.

“F-fine,” Baekhyun says. “I mean, it’s fine. Don’t, you don’t...it’s fine.”

Sehun raises his head wearing a funny smile, a kind Baekhyun’s never seen him wear before. It looks nice, of course, Sehun is as handsome as they come, but it’s different. And the curl of heat in Baekhyun’s stomach grows. He tries desperately to get a handle on it before he starts to reek of arousal.

“I guess you can’t say?” Sehun asks.

“I would have thought that Jongdae had told every alpha, beta, and omega in this place by now,” Baekhyun says, rubbing his wrist.

“You know me,” Sehun says, even though Baekhyun doesn’t know him that well. “I mostly keep to myself.”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun says. “I guess you’re right.”

“I just wanted to see that you were okay,” Sehun says. “The Sleep isn’t always easy.”

And Baekhyun doesn’t know how he knows that or why he says it, but Baekhyun is grateful that he has. Before he can respond, though, Sehun pulls a hand out from behind his back and it’s a fistful of deep blue-purple flowers, flat green leaves and roots still attached.

“I know they’re for healing,” Sehun says sheepishly, running a hand through his messy hair, “for those ales you make for the elder wolves and I know it’s sort of wasteful to use them for this, but...I found them. A big patch of them up on the Northern border. I don’t know. I thought you might like them.”

Baekhyun takes them from Sehun’s hand, not at all careful or gentle, and he says nothing before he storms away, the upset pouring off of him in waves.  

The sleeping violet is the flower he favors, and everyone knows it.

 

☽

 

_Baekhyun is eighteen and is in the throes of his first heat._

Not again, Baekhyun thinks. He sends a few pleas to the Goddess above him, hoping that she might spare him from reliving it.

The scene doesn’t change, though, so Baekhyun parts the curtain to the hut at the Northern border where they send all the unmated estrus-stricken wolves, and he sees himself writhing on a bed of scentless furs. The room smells like flowers and sex, so pungent and strong that he almost steps back outside.

“Oh, fuck off,” Little Baekhyun says, not so little anymore, and Baekhyun does actually step back outside for a moment in shock. He’s never been addressed before. He doesn’t remember speaking to a spirit in the midst of it. Maybe he did. His brain was heat-addled, to be sure, totally focused on one thing.

Baekhyun wonders how this will help him. How this will show him the way.

He steps back inside, sees himself with his fingers between his legs, a hand on his cock. He comes with a filthy hiss, body bowed, before he lays back on the bed weakly. The worst is over. It must be. The fight has leaked from his eyes in his tears.

And in the night, Baekhyun hears a single wolf howl.

On the bed, he shivers.

  
☾

 

Jongdae is trying to steal the meat off his plate, Baekhyun slapping his fingers away, when Sehun sits beside him.

Everyone keeps on going with their lives like nothing of significance has just happened: Jongdae still trying to steal food from Baekhyun even though he has plenty still left of his own share, Junmyeon braiding pieces of leather quickly and mechanically and then wrapping them around Minseok’s wrist with a satisfied pat, Chanyeol shouting something because he always needs to try to be louder than Jongdae (even though he never will be).

“You left so fast earlier,” Sehun says. “I hope I didn’t...I hope that wasn’t out of line.”

Baekhyun whines and pushes up from the table, makes to leave.

“Wait,” Sehun says, “wait, I’m sorry.”

Apologies seem to fall from Oh Sehun’s mouth as easy as the rains seem to fall from the clouds, and Baekhyun has never known an alpha quite that willing to admit a fault.

“For what?” Baekhyun says, quiet. He doesn’t want to make a stir. The gossips are cruel in their little pack, and word of a row travels fast. There’s only about a gross of them, give or take five or so in either direction. The best entertainment is a dramatic wolf at supper time.

“For interrupting your meal,” Sehun says. “We can talk later. If you’d like.”

“We can talk now. I’m finished,” Baekhyun says before turning back to the table. “Jongdae can have the rest, since he’s so desperate for it.”

Jongdae pumps a fist in the air and drags Baekhyun’s unfinished plate in front of himself, proud of his bounty.

Baekhyun walks out of the hall, the biggest building on their pack grounds. It’s where they commune, where they govern, where they celebrate, and where they feast. It was built many years, many, many summers before Baekhyun was born. And it will stand for many years, many, many more summers, long after Baekhyun is food for the deer.

He isn’t surprised to feel Sehun follow him, not at his side but back behind, trailing along again like that lost little pup. Baekhyun walks all the way back to his home, but the grounds are clear with everyone busy at supper.

“You wanted to talk?” Baekhyun asks.

“I did,” Sehun says before quickly adding, “I do.”

“Talk, puppy,” Baekhyun says. “I’m busy.”

“I could always come back,” Sehun says, and for some reason, that grates Baekhyun more than anything else.

“Goddess, are you an alpha or not?” Baekhyun says.

Sehun squints, hurt.

“What?” he asks.

“I said, are you an alpha or not?” Baekhyun says before he can stop himself.

“You know that I am,” Sehun says with a small voice.

“You sure don’t act like one,” Baekhyun accuses.

“Why are you being like this?” Sehun asks.

“Like what?” Baekhyun scowls. “This is how I always am.”

“No, it’s not,” Sehun says. “You’re much nicer than this.”

“I’m not,” Baekhyun says. “I’m mean.”

Sehun shakes his head as though Baekhyun is the wolf out of line.

“What?” Baekhyun challenges. “If you have something to say, then be a big pup and say it.”

Sehun steels himself, eyes closed for a moment.

“You’re different with me, different from how you are with the rest of the wolves,” Sehun says. “Everyone likes you, you know? Everyone in the pack. Because you’re Baekhyun. You’re smart and you’re quick and you’re good in a fight even if you don’t need to be because you’re talented most everywhere else. You’re more thoughtful than the alphas and betas, even more than the rest of the omegas. All the eldest wolves like you so much. And you’re good with the puppies too.”

Deep inside him, in the little part of his brain dedicated to such things, his wolf wants to show his belly, wants his belly rubbed alongside the compliments. He scowls.

“What is your point? Or are you here to talk my ear off?” Baekhyun says.

“You’re different,” Sehun says. “You’re special. And I like you. I want to court you.”

“You dumb puppy,” Baekhyun says even as his stomach twists up in a knot, even as Sehun’s nose twitches and he smiles. “Don’t you know not to approach a freshly Slept wolf? I’ve got my mate in my head. Leave me alone.”

But Sehun just keeps smiling, smiling like he _knows_.

“You’re no different now,” Baekhyun continues angrily. “You’re still the same wolf you were when we were kids.”

“The same wolf that scared that flame-mare away?” Sehun smiles, and _fuck,_ Baekhyun feels it right in his heart like a little jolt of electricity.

“Wh-what?” Baekhyun asks.

But instead of any words, Sehun responds by crowding in, backing Baekhyun up against the wall. Baekhyun tries to hold it in, but a whimper escapes him. He scolds himself internally, but his body can’t help but respond to the waves of Sehun’s scent, all strong and sure.

“What are you doing?” Baekhyun says, and he balls his fists in Sehun’s shirt, unsure if he means to push him away or pull him closer.

Sehun leans down, their faces so close that Baekhyun can see the dots of his freckles. He nudges at Baekhyun’s cheek with his nose, and Baekhyun acquiesces. Looks to the side, his neck bared.

He feels Sehun’s nose slide along the line of his neck, and then he feels the tips of Sehun’s fingers follow the same path. Soft and gentle and not enough. Baekhyun whines at the feeling, and he squeezes his thighs together, hoping that Sehun can’t smell it.

“Is that alpha enough for you?” Sehun asks, and he’s _teasing_ Baekhyun. Oh Sehun is _teasing_ him, scenting him. Working him up. Pushing.  

Baekhyun flattens his palms on Sehun’s chest and shoves him backwards. Sehun’s cheeks are flushed red, and he looks so pleased with himself. Baekhyun wants to growl at him and maybe bite him.

“No more silly things,” Baekhyun orders. “No courting.”

“Okay,” Sehun says.

“I mean it,” Baekhyun says.

“I’m sure you do,” Sehun says, and Goddess, how did he get so confident so quick?

“Listen here, you big ugly pup,” Baekhyun says, jabbing a finger into Sehun’s chest hard. “No funny stuff.”

“Did you like the violets?” Sehun asks.

“Does a bluebear shit in the wood?” Baekhyun says, rolling his eyes. “Everyone knows they’re my favorite. That has nothing to do with this.”

“It has everything to do with this,” Sehun says. He bows to Baekhyun, just another thing that sets Baekhyun’s stomach alight. “Goodnight, Baekhyun. Rest well.”

And then Sehun wanders back to his own hut, and Baekhyun, despite himself, watches him go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a very weak explicit rating, but explicit all the same. there's porn later, i promise. 
> 
> u know the spiel. i have a twitter (@wolfsupremacist) where i occasionally talk abt other things i'm writing. i love getting kudos and comments bc im a vain creature. 
> 
> thanks for reading!!!! and thank you for the comments!!!!! i love u


	4. one bluebear, maybe two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> make sure u read the new tags! if mentions of mpreg are not ur deal, u may want to navigate elsewhere

_ Baekhyun is older, his hair is much shorter, only just long enough to be pulled back at the nape of his neck, and he doesn’t know the cabin he walks into. _

Finally, he thinks, _finally_ , a real dream. Maybe all his fears were for naught. 

His older self sits in the corner of the room in a beautiful rocking chair. He doesn’t look up from where he sits, but a smile breaks onto his face. Like he knows someone’s there. 

Baekhyun can’t be more than twenty-four...or twenty-five. No more than half a hundred moons older than he stands, but he looks much happier than he felt moments before his Sleep, so he takes it as a good omen. The rocking chair he rests in has carvings along the arm, the symbols their ancestors used to use in their writing on the walls. 

Baekhyun’s pretty good at translating, so he reads the words to himself:  _ protect. respect. cherish. serve. honor. love.  _

His heart aches pleasantly in his chest when he realizes who must have made that chair, who must have carved those words. 

With that thought, Baekhyun looks up from the chair and smirks. 

“Be nicer,” he says, furrowing his brow. “You’re always so cross with him for no reason at all. He’s a nice boy. Be good to him.” 

He doesn’t say anything in response, just looks at what his older self has in his hands: a soft white pelt with a blue glow. The awareness jumps from his stomach to his throat. He knows what that means.

Then Sehun walks into the hut,  _ their  _ hut, and wanders to Baekhyun easy. Kisses him soft on the mouth with no hesitation or worry. 

“How was it?” Baekhyun asks. 

“Fucking  _ hard, _ ” Sehun says before flopping back onto the bed. “I’m so tired. My feet ache. I’ll need them rubbed by a sweet, beautiful, kind omega.” 

“Better find a sweet, beautiful, kind omega then,” Baekhyun says, and Sehun laughs like it’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard. 

He sits up a bit, resting on his elbows. 

“You really like it that much?” Sehun asks, gesturing to the fur across Baekhyun’s lap. 

“You know that I do,” Baekhyun says. 

“Come thank me for it,” Sehun grins, lascivious. “Properly.” 

“I have thanked you properly, you filthy boy,” Baekhyun says. “Besides, I thought you were tired.” 

Sehun stands up like a bolt of lightning, nearly jumping out of the bed to grab Baekhyun from the rocking chair, hauling him bodily into his arms. 

“Let go of me!” Baekhyun protests, but it’s a mistake, as Baekhyun is dropped unceremoniously onto the cushion of the bed. Sehun cages him in with his arms, leaves a gap between their bodies. “Ah! And I thought alphas were supposed to be gentle with their mates.” 

Sehun licks the seam of Baekhyun’s lips, swallows his answering whine. 

“Gentle didn’t put a puppy inside you, now, did it?” Sehun says, and Baekhyun is embarrassed by how it goes right to his groin. 

The elder version of himself throws his head back at it and groans, throat unmarred and white save for the faded-red mark of a mate. It’s pristine. Teeth careful. Beautiful. Baekhyun almost wants to cry looking at it. 

“I bitched at him for two moons,” Baekhyun says to him, head turned to the side. “Made sure he was gonna do it just right. I wouldn’t let him at first. Goddess, he hated me for that. I mean, first thing he wanted, and I mean  _ first  _ thing he wanted after he got his cock inside me, was to bite me. But I made him wait. He said he hated it, but he came so hard. Filled me up so good. But I made him wait all the same.” 

Sehun grinds their bodies together on the bed, and a moan echoes in the room. 

“After all,” Baekhyun says, “you only get one mate mark.”

And then he turns back to Sehun, addresses him again. 

“I thought you were tired,” Baekhyun says again, Sehun with clever hands wandering under Baekhyun’s clothes. 

“There’s nothing like a fuck after a hunt,” Sehun says. “Come on. Let me. Omega, please.” 

“No,” Baekhyun says. 

“Please,” Sehun whines. 

Baekhyun whips his head over to make eye contact again. 

“See how easy he is for you?” Baekhyun whispers. “Just a big dumb love-struck puppy with a big hard alpha cock.” 

He looks back at Sehun and sneaks a hand between their bodies to palm at Sehun. 

“No,” Baekhyun teases. 

“Baekhyun. I’ll do anything,” Sehun says, and he pushes his hips forward. “You smell so good, little omega.” 

“Mm,” Baekhyun says. “How good?” 

“So good,” Sehun whimpers, face buried at the crook of Baekhyun’s neck. “Like flowers and honey and  _ milk. _ ” 

“Mm,” Baekhyun moans again, grinding his body against Sehun’s. 

“Please,” Sehun says. “Anything.” 

“Anything?” Baekhyun tests. 

“Anything,” Sehun says. 

“Take off your clothes,” Baekhyun says. 

Sehun sits up on his knees, strips off his buckskin, and nearly tosses it into the fire in his haste. 

“Careful,” Baekhyun says, but Sehun doesn’t slow, strips his pants off just as quickly before settling back between Baekhyun’s legs. 

But Baekhyun manages to catch a glimpse. He wasn’t kidding. Alpha, indeed. 

“What else?” Sehun asks, eager. 

“Show me your belly,” Baekhyun orders. 

And Sehun doesn’t question it, just rolls over and submits like he’s some omega in heat, ready to spread his legs and take dick. 

“What else?” he asks. 

“Get me five snow-deer,” Baekhyun says, leaning over Sehun possessively. “I want them fleshed and soaked and grained by the next moon, you hear me?” 

Sehun nods happily, like snow-deer aren’t rare and like it won’t be a mountain of work for him.  

“What else?” he asks. 

“Nothing else,” Baekhyun says, and he leans down, kisses the perfect mate mark on Sehun’s collarbone. “Touch yourself for me, puppy. Show me how bad you want me.” 

Sehun slides a fist over himself, and if Baekhyun couldn’t smell his excitement, thick and heady, he’d be able to hear it. Sehun’s dick is already wet at the head, and when he circles his hand over it, it makes a slick noise. 

Baekhyun looks over at him from the bed before throwing his legs over Sehun’s, and they both listen to him moan. 

“It’s going to get filthy in a moment,” he says as he slips his cock alongside Sehun’s in his grip and starts to thrust slowly, “so if you’re feeling pure, you better look away.” 

But Baekhyun doesn’t get a choice in the matter as he’s being ripped away, tumbling once more. And thank the Goddess for that, because if he  _ had  _ a choice, he thinks he might have chosen to stay. 

  
☾

 

He tells himself that he will keep a distance between the two of them. It will be better this way. It’s for the best. For both of them. 

The next morning, as he’s walking to the river with Chanyeol, Sehun appears by his side. 

Baekhyun doesn’t acknowledge him, just keeps on walking and keeps up his side of the conversation with Chanyeol. Every so often, he feels Sehun nudge his hand against Baekhyun’s.  _ The cheekiest little pup.  _

Once they get to the river, Chanyeol strips his clothes and jumps into the water. 

“Aren’t you coming?” Chanyeol asks, and it occurs to Baekhyun that he’s speaking to both of them. 

He looks at Sehun, who has his hands on the bottom hem of his shirt, poised to raise it. Sehun raises his eyebrows asking for permission. 

Baekhyun rolls his eyes and starts to strip himself naked. They’re wolves, for the Lady’s sake. If Baekhyun started blushing every time he saw someone nude, he’d never get out of his bed in the morning. 

He folds his clothes and hangs them over a nearby branch, the same one he always does, and then walks into the water and tries to get acclimated to the frigid water. 

Baekhyun wades around for a moment, breathing out through clenched teeth before he decides to just dunk himself in the water and let his body figure it out. 

It’s ice cold and almost too refreshing, his system going wild for a minute before he sputters back to the surface. 

Baekhyun catches Sehun pulling his shirt over his head, and his breath catches in his chest. At least he has the water as an excuse. He looks away quickly, swimming to the where the river is deepest. 

“Oh!” Chanyeol says. “Jinyeong’s down there.” 

He points further down the river where a bunch of the girls are bathing. 

“I’m gonna go say hi,” Chanyeol says, and if his crush wasn’t obvious before, it’s annoyingly evident now. He swims off casually without another word, letting the motion of the river carry him lazily downstream. Baekhyun knows he won’t see him until supper. He wishes he would have spoken up and asked him to stay. 

Sehun clears his throat, and Baekhyun looks back to him. He’s holding his pants over himself. Like he’s unsure. 

“Should I go?” Sehun asks. 

Baekhyun rolls his eyes. 

“You can bathe wherever you want,” Baekhyun says. 

“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” Sehun says. 

“That didn’t seem to matter when you were scenting me without permission,” Baekhyun says. 

Sehun throws his pants to the side, and  _ fuck _ , Baekhyun can’t breathe. It’s getting silly, this little crush he’s developed. He needs it to cease. Sehun walks into the water slowly, and he doesn’t flinch, just walks over to Baekhyun, tall enough that he doesn’t need to bob up and down. Feet planted in the silt of the river. 

“You didn’t seem uncomfortable,” Sehun says. “And it smelled like you liked it.” 

Baekhyun steps back, needs the few inches of space he puts between them. 

“Scent doesn’t tell you everything,” Baekhyun argues, even though it does, it  _ absolutely  _ does. 

“Then be honest with me,” Sehun says. 

“Fine,” Baekhyun says. “Fine, I’ll be honest. I don’t want you sniffing around me when I’m gonna belong to someone else.” 

“I thought you said you’d be honest,” Sehun says, and he leans back, the long tan line of him beckoning Baekhyun forward to touch and smell and taste. 

He dips his head in the water to get his hair wet, and Goddess, Baekhyun can smell him on the surface of the water now. It’s almost intoxicating. 

“Didn’t your fathers teach you any manners?” Baekhyun asks. 

“They did,” Sehun says. “But they always said being true was more important than everything else.” 

Baekhyun turns, and then feels Sehun’s hands at his back, rubbing along his shoulders. It feels sinfully good, the Sleep keeping his muscles tight and miserable for a moon. 

“Do you remember now?” Sehun asks. “Remember what happened?” 

Baekhyun whips around, feeling distinctly like he needs some tea, maybe Mercy tea for what he’s feeling. 

“Remember what?” Baekhyun asks. “Why are you being like this?” 

Sehun’s eyes dim a little. 

“Turn back ‘round,” he says. “I’ll wash your hair for you.” 

“Don’t--,” Baekhyun starts, wanting to not let him. But he can’t quite stop himself. Who knows. Who knows when he’ll get it again. If he’ll get it again. “Don’t scent me. Use your knuckles or something. I don’t wanna stink like some puppy alpha.” 

Sehun’s face softens at that, another timid smile. 

“Okay,” he says, and when Baekhyun turns back around, the pads of Sehun’s fingers are on his scalp, scenting him thoroughly, and Baekhyun can’t figure out why he’s denying himself this. If he only has it for a moment, at least he’ll have had it at all.

  
☽

 

_ Baekhyun is older still, holding a baby in his arm, a familiar shock of blue-black hair on its head.  _

This, Baekhyun thinks, is what he was afraid of. Matings and marks and puppies. But it’s close enough in his future that the Moon Lady could show him everything. 

It would be too much responsibility. He wouldn’t be able to handle it all. His smile looks so serene, but this couldn’t be true. Not  _ him,  _ of all wolves. 

“Don’t do that,” his older self chides. “You’ll upset the poor thing with your stink.” 

Baekhyun tries, for the sake of the child, to get himself under control even though he wasn’t entirely sure how his scent could possibly leak through time. 

“Hana,” Baekhyun says. “In case you were wondering what her name is.” 

_ One _ . 

“Isn’t it funny?” Baekhyun says. “Sehun told me he wanted three. I told him let’s start with Hana.” 

His older self smiles down at the girl, making soft noises in his arms. Baekhyun smiles at her too. She’s really a beautiful little thing. All wrapped up in that bluebear fur. 

“Ah. You worry too much,” Baekhyun says. “You were so worried before you Slept. Why? Scared of this? Scared of her?” 

Baekhyun lowers his head. 

“Some wolf you are,” Baekhyun says. “Just a little pillow-sheep, aren’t you?” 

If he was shifted, his tail would be between his legs. He feels properly reprimanded.  

The door shuts behind him, and Baekhyun wheels to see Sehun setting a package down on the table. He’s older. More meat on him.  _ More handsome,  _ some dumb part of him thinks. Regardless, the pack must be doing well. New puppies. All the alphas well fed. Another good omen. 

“My pretty omega,” he greets Baekhyun as he slides his shoes off. “And my beautiful baby. How is she?” 

“She’s well,” Baekhyun says. “But I, oh Goddess, I’m not so well.” 

Sehun’s on him in a minute, taking the baby from his arms and holding her close to his chest. 

“What’s wrong?” he asks. Concern washes over the room, Sehun’s glands pumping it out overactive and anxious. 

“I’m--I’m,” Baekhyun says, the back of his hand against his forehead like he means to faint where he sits. 

“Baekhyun,” Sehun says, frantic. 

“I’m famished,” he smiles. “And I require berries.” 

“You...,” Sehun scowls. “You little puppy. You put the fear of the Goddess in me. Goodness. What an evil little thing you are.” 

“Hey,” Baekhyun says. “I’m stuck in this place for another half moon before they’ll let me wander about. I’ve got no source of fun.” 

Sehun makes to open his mouth to say something, but Baekhyun cuts him off. 

“And another moon before you can knot me, you animal,” Baekhyun says. 

Sehun furrows his brow. 

“That’s not what I was gonna say,” Sehun says. 

“I can smell you at night,” Baekhyun says. “And in the morning too. I have a  _ nose,  _ you know. Filthy boy.” 

“Just because my  _ body  _ wants to knot you doesn’t mean I do. You still need to heal,” Sehun says primly. “You smell good. Fatherhood suits you. I can’t help but want to taste. Flagellate my wolf more, Omega, please.” 

“Then what were you going to suggest, oh alpha of mine?” Baekhyun asks. 

“I was going to suggest...,” Sehun says. And he walks over to the package he laid on the table. He unwraps the paper carefully, uncharacteristically clumsy with only one hand free, before saying, “painting.” 

Baekhyun is forced to move out of the way when his older self crosses the room, wincing a bit as he moves. 

“Slow,” Sehun says, but Baekhyun doesn’t obey him, just grabs the first jar he can touch and he lifts it to the dying light of the day streaming in from the window. 

“Did you…” 

“I got Sunyoung to help me make them,” Sehun says. “She, uh, she told me what to get. For the colors I wanted, and then she made them while I watched.” 

There is every color Baekhyun could imagine: bright blues and vibrant purples and shimmering golds, the flaming pink and orange of summer sunsets. 

Sehun pulls out brushes, some fine and some broad, all carved elegant with swirls in the handles. Then he moves one final piece from the wrappings. A giant buckskin, four or five sewn together well enough that it looked like one piece, as long as Baekhyun is tall. “I thought it would be...I don’t know, I thought you might like it.” 

Sehun is always softening his affections, like he thinks the real thing, the brunt of it might scare Baekhyun away. Maybe he’s right, Baekhyun thinks. 

“It’s beautiful,” Baekhyun says, hand touching the supple canvas. “But I don’t know...I don’t want to ruin this.” 

Sehun presses a kiss to his temple before nosing into his hair. They make a pretty picture, standing there. The three of them.  

“You could never ruin it,” Sehun says. “Promise.” 

Baekhyun smiles, and everything smells like flowers. His fingers dip into a jar of paint, cherry red, and then he streaks it across Sehun’s cheek. 

As he’s sinking back into the swirl of time, he wonders what he paints. Whether he’s good. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow i love being emo and i love domestic fluff! 
> 
> thank u for the comments, i read them and they make my day. hope u enjoyed this lil bit!


	5. black like the sleeping place

Moons pass, and Baekhyun tries to keep to himself. It does not work. Sehun keeps close by. Baekhyun keeps a countdown in his head. 19. 18. 17. 16. 15. Sehun’s Sleep will come like the dawn comes after the night. He cannot stop it. You cannot stop time. You cannot stop the Sleep, he tells himself. 

The pack can smell Sehun on him, and they think him improper for letting the secret go. He wishes he could tell them it wasn’t his fault, that he never told Sehun anything. 

How did Sehun know? He couldn’t figure that out. Baekhyun never said. Sehun sought him out after he woke. Gave him a fistful of flowers and said he wanted to court him, but Baekhyun hadn’t said anything. 

Sehun starts to take him on runs. At first, he asks Baekhyun with pleading puppy eyes, and at first, Baekhyun denies him. But he can’t hold back long. He’s weak for Sehun, he’s figured out. 

Sehun lays him down in the patch of the sleeping violets at the Northern border most every night and covers Baekhyun’s body with his own. It's nothing, he tells himself, because it’s nothing more than Sehun’s weight over him, but it’s still perfect. The earth is cooling around them, the harvest bountiful, and the night is clear. 

“We can’t do this,” Baekhyun says, even as he moans into the night, Sehun’s lips at his throat. “We can’t keep doing this.” 

“Why not?” Sehun asks. 

“It’s...you’re--,” Baekhyun stutters. His wolf is so pleased, rolling around like a fool in the flowers. 

“Are you scared?” Sehun asks. “Nervous?”

Yes, he thinks,  _ I have never been more scared or more nervous, but not why you think. You don’t know everything I’ve seen. You don’t. You couldn’t.  _

“Don’t you see, Baekhyun?” Sehun asks. “Don’t you remember?” 

“I remember everything,” Baekhyun says, and he’s got tears in his eyes for reasons he can’t explain to Sehun. “It’s branded into me, forever. And I’ll never forget it. So don’t talk about things you have no idea about, you stupid puppy.” 

“I know all about it,” Sehun says. “Because I was there.” 

Sehun gets up, offers Baekhyun a hand. 

“And if you don’t wanna talk about it,” Sehun says, “that’s fine. If you wanna keep us apart until my Sleep, that’s fine too. But just remember: I’m your mate. And I know everything.” 

How, Baekhyun thinks,  _ how, how.  _

And then, after Sehun puts Baekhyun back in his own hut, starts the long walk back to his own, it’s obvious. 

It wasn’t Sehun who forgot. It was him. 

  
☽

 

_ Baekhyun is in a blank space. There is no light. It is black, but swirling with purple. And he sees nothing. Sees no body besides the body he’s in. Not a past version. Not a future version. Just him. Just one.  _

Is this death, he wonders.  _ Have I died?  _

But then out of the darkness steps Sehun. He looks exactly like he looked the morning before Baekhyun took his Sleep, but his hair is messier and his eyes are tired. 

“You woke me,” Sehun says. 

“I did no such thing,” Baekhyun says. 

Sehun laughs, bright and loud, just like the day with the bell-root. Baekhyun’s stomach does something funny, clenching like his body means to vomit. 

“Why are you nervous?” Sehun says. “Isn’t it obvious why I’m here?” 

“Of course it’s obvious, you...,” Baekhyun says, struggling to think of an insult, “you big wolf.” 

Sehun smiles, one eye squinting like he’s not sure what to make of that. 

“Are you okay?” Sehun asks. 

“I’m fine, I’ve just seen a lot so far,” Baekhyun says. “And I’m ready for it to be over.” 

“Desperate to come see me?” Sehun asks. 

“Goddess, you’re the cocksure one, aren’t you?” Baekhyun says, trying to reconcile all he’s seen with the Sehun who always asks Baekhyun’s mother for permission before he helps her with the crushing of the herbs, who hangs back when the rest of the pack dances drunkenly on the night of harvest feasts. Who never seemed all that confident in himself except when he shifted. 

“Something about your Sleep,” Sehun shrugs, shoulders shifting. “It’s made me bold.” 

Baekhyun wonders  _ how bold  _ when he’s taken into strong arms the way he’s never been taken before. 

“This bold,” Sehun says, like he knows the inside of Baekhyun. Heart and soul. 

“Leave go of me,” Baekhyun says. 

“Okay,” Sehun says, and he lets Baekhyun go easily. 

“What is this?” Baekhyun asks. “What are you doing here? What kind of dream is this?” 

“It’s not a dream, I don’t think,” Sehun says. “And you’re the one who brought me here.” 

Baekhyun rolls his eyes. 

“It’s true!” Sehun says. “I’m in my bed right now. I think. Unless I’m hallucinating. The moon wanes. You’re almost through.” 

“Through?” Baekhyun asks. “Through my Sleep, you mean?” 

“Yeah,” Sehun says. “I’ve missed you. It seems like it’s been longer than it has been.” 

“This is such a strange dream,” Baekhyun says. “I don’t...I don’t understand this.” 

“There’s nothing to understand,” Sehun says. “The Lady wants us to speak. So we’re speaking.” 

“I don’t know what to say,” Baekhyun says. “It’s been--it’s been a lot.” 

“I know. Weird to see you with a baby,” Sehun says. “You always told everyone you didn’t want puppies even though you’re so good with them.” 

“I know,” Baekhyun sighs. “Wha--wait, you saw?” 

“I’ve seen it all,” Sehun says. “I never thought you’d be as...aggressive as you are.” 

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Baekhyun asks. 

“You know,” Sehun says, and he puts a hand on back of Baekhyun’s neck and pulls him close. “ _Under the furs_.” 

“Goddess!” Baekhyun says. “You stop that.” 

“You’re the one who brought me here,” Sehun says. “I didn’t even know you liked me.” 

“I don’t,” Baekhyun lies. 

“Ah,” Sehun smiles. “But I’ve seen it all, Baekhyun. My little omega.”

Sehun turns him, pulls Baekhyun’s back against his front, and a moan escapes Baekhyun’s mouth. And then they’re naked, naked as the day they were born. 

“Where did...what did you do to me?” Baekhyun asks, slapping at Sehun’s leg where he can reach.  

Sehun laughs, says “I didn’t do anything. I just got you in my arms. You did the rest. You move quick, too.” 

Sehun’s lips move to Baekhyun’s ear, and a shiver goes down Baekhyun’s spine.  _ Fuck.  _

“Dirty pup,” Sehun says, and Baekhyun can feel him hard against his ass. “You want this?” 

Goddess help him, he  _ does.  _

“I know,” Sehun says. “I’ve been waking up every morning with a fucking knot ever since you told me to show my belly.” 

Baekhyun shivers again, remembering it. 

The power that coursed through him, natural as water flowing in the river. The way they moved around each other...it was like they’d mated a hundred times, and then a hundred times more. Baekhyun trembles at the thought, knowing that soon, he’ll have had Sehun in every way imaginable and still won’t be tired of him. Will know him every way and will still be so hungry for him that his teeth ache.

He’s so wet. He’s so wet that he’s dripping down the backs of his thighs, and it’s a delicious heat that spreads through him. Sehun’s hands are all over him, and he wonders if, when he wakes, he’ll smell like Sehun. 

“This has to be a dream,” Baekhyun says. 

“If you want it to be a dream, it will be,” Sehun says. 

Baekhyun looks back, over his shoulder. Sehun’s there, so close that Baekhyun can smell the mint on his tongue. 

“I don’t want it to be,” Baekhyun says. “I want it to be real.” 

Sehun kisses him for the first time, and it tastes like moonlight. Baekhyun is easy for it, easy for Sehun. Maybe he always has been. Maybe since they were kids. Maybe he’s just been stubborn like his mother always said he was. 

He doesn’t want to be stubborn any longer. He wants what he’s meant to have. 

Baekhyun tilts his hips back. 

“Please,” Baekhyun says. He’s never been the most polite omega in the pack, but he’ll beg for this if he needs. “Please, Sehun-ah.” 

“Fuck,” Sehun curses. “I hope I remember this.” 

Baekhyun knows he won’t, knows this is just the Moon Lady playing with them both, but if that’s what she wants, that’s what she’ll get

“Please,” Baekhyun says impatiently. “Now.” 

Sehun trails clever fingers down his spine, and Baekhyun arches at the feeling, pushing himself into Sehun’s crotch, slotting his cock in the cleft of his ass. 

“Be good now,” Sehun says. 

“You be good,” Baekhyun says. “Put it in.” 

“You’re such a romantic,” Sehun says. 

“There’s no time,” Baekhyun says, but he’s bluffing. He has no idea how much time he’ll be allowed here, has no concept of it. Maybe they’ll spend a whole moon here. It sends a shock through him. A moon spent in floating time. Where nothing matters. Where he doesn’t need to sleep or eat or anything. Just stay. With Sehun. 

“That’s a nice idea,” Sehun hums. “It’ll be just like that when you wake.” 

“Hush,” Baekhyun says, on the edge of tears for some silly reason. “Fuck me.” 

“As my omega commands,” Sehun says. 

He pushes inside Baekhyun slow, hands gentle on Baekhyun’s hips. Baekhyun’s never felt anything quite so good, quite so satisfying. He moans out and it reverberates, coming back at him louder than he remembered. 

“Good?” Sehun asks. 

“Good,” Baekhyun groans. 

Sehun bottoms out, his body flush against Baekhyun’s, and Baekhyun thinks that nothing will beat this moment. Nothing could possibly top it. 

“Don’t--,” Sehun says. “Don’t think like that. It feels too good. You feel too good.” 

He laughs, tightening all over just to hear Sehun gasp and dig the tips of fingers into Baekhyun’s hips hard enough to leave bruises. 

“I wish this was real,” Baekhyun says. 

“It is,” Sehun says. “As long as you want it to be.” 

Baekhyun is slipping away before he can answer, unstuck. Leaving. Gone. 

  
☾

 

The recollections hit him hard, so hard that they knock the wind right out of him. How could he have forgotten? How could it have slipped his mind? It was so tangible, it felt real. 

“Can you tell me?” Baekhyun asks shyly. “About your Sleep?” 

Junmyeon smiles like he was waiting for Baekhyun to ask. 

It’s...taboo to ask. Sleeps are sacred. Sleeps are secret. There’s no law against sharing, of course, but the rule is unspoken. What happens in the Sleep stays there, eventually shared between a wolf and their mate. But Baekhyun needs advice. Needs help. 

“I saw a lot of things,” Junmyeon says. “Mostly stuff that happened a moon or so after Minseok’s Sleep. When I was drawn to him most.” 

“Really?” Baekhyun asks. 

“Yeah,” Junmyeon says. “Little memories. It was nice.” 

“Was there anything...else?” Baekhyun asks. 

“I saw some things,” Junmyeon says. “The future.  _ A  _ future, I guess.” 

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah,” Junmyeon says. “Not everything has come to fruition. Not everything has happened exactly like it did. I thought we’d have a child by now. But we don’t. Minseok wanted to wait. As a pair, you always have the power to change it.” 

Baekhyun breathes out unevenly. There’s time. He can save him, save them both. 

“Why?” Junmyeon asks. 

“It’s...it’s complicated,” Baekhyun says. He doesn’t want to tell more people than he needs to. It’s sacred, after all. 

“Okay,” Junmyeon says. “Just make sure, whatever you do, you keep Sehun in mind. He’s a strong wolf. He’s a nice wolf. He deserves to be treated well.” 

Baekhyun knows it too well. 

  
☽

 

_ Baekhyun is in the lost space again, and Sehun is there before his feet touch the ground.  _

“I was hoping you’d have me back,” Sehun says. “I’ve missed you.” 

Sehun moves to gather Baekhyun in his embrace, and Baekhyun meets him halfway, kissing him softly. He could get used to this. In some way, he already has. 

“How long has it been?” he asks when they part. 

“Just one day,” Sehun says. “Did you miss me too?” 

Baekhyun can’t tell time here. It felt like both seconds and summers since he last saw Sehun in his Sleep. Floating does that to him. He doesn’t know. All that he knows is that he had missed Sehun dearly, so he tells him so. 

He’s rewarded with a bright smile. 

“Good,” Sehun says. “I woke up so tired yesterday. With a mess in my bed.” 

Baekhyun smirks. 

“Naughty,” Sehun says, kissing Baekhyun on the tip of his nose. “And all your fault.” 

“I think you started it,” Baekhyun says. “Couldn’t even wait for me to wake. Had to have me here.” 

“Like it was just me. I didn’t even knot you,” Sehun scoffs. “If it was all me, I would have knotted you.” 

Baekhyun squeezes at Sehun’s biceps, digs his fingernails in to hear Sehun gasp. 

“You wanna have a puppy already?” Baekhyun asks. “You haven’t even built me a house yet.” 

“I’ll build you seven houses,” Sehun says, kissing the shell of Baekhyun’s ear. “You can sleep in a different one every day.” 

“The Lady doesn’t like excess,” Baekhyun says.

“The Lady would understand,” Sehun says. “She would make an exception for a wolf as pretty as you.” 

Baekhyun feels himself blush, embarrassed but in love with the way Sehun makes him feel. 

“Quit it,” Baekhyun says. 

“Ah, you forget,” Sehun says. “I can feel you. I know what you’re thinking. You’re such a soft puppy, aren’t you? You act tough, but you just wanna be called cute.” 

“Well, what of it?” Baekhyun says. “I  _ am  _ cute.” 

“You are,” Sehun says fondly. “The cutest I’ve ever seen.”

Baekhyun ducks his head, the pink rising in his cheeks, and he buries his face against Sehun’s chest. 

“You’re easy to please,” Sehun says happily.  

“I’m not,” Baekhyun says. “All those snow-deer.” 

“Ah, snow-deer are easy when you’re quiet and quick like me,” Sehun boasts. “I’ll get you fifty if you want.” 

“The Lady doesn’t like a liar,” Baekhyun says. 

“Good thing I’ve never lied,” Sehun says, and he kisses Baekhyun quiet for the rest of their time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> plot! at least....a lil bit. 
> 
> thanks as always for the kudos and nice comments!!!! also if u have any questions, let me know in the comments and ill try my best to explain without giving stuff away. anyways! hope u enjoyed this chapter! total word count for the story is now over 30k so there's plenty of stuff to come! drama! intrigue! angst! real, honest-to-god sex coming in at chapter 8! 
> 
> thanks for reading xx


	6. winter white

Sehun does as he said he’d do. He leaves Baekhyun alone after their last night in the violets. Jongdae and Chanyeol watch Baekhyun carefully, give him eyes and scents that bleed of concern, but he pays them no mind, because Sehun has listened to him.

And Baekhyun’s...Baekhyun’s glad for it in some way. He spends all his time trying to think of a way to change what the Sleep showed him, and he needs all the focus he can get.

But that focus evades him. Winter comes blustering and white, laying snow at their feet. The wolves keep inside, keep to themselves mostly during the winter. Holed up with mates and families. They had a good hunt. They’ll survive easily.

His mother fills his basket with jars of Summer’s Heat and sends him trudging through the snow, delivering to wolves who look grateful to see him. Fires aren’t enough in this frigid cold. They mix a spoonful into tea and watch the stuff go red before they gulp it down, the warmth of July seeping through them quick.

Baekhyun stops before Sehun’s home. Kicks his feet in the snow before realizing how childish he’s being.

He raps his knuckles on the wood and steps back.

Sehun’s eyes warm when he opens to find Baekhyun there.

“Come in,” Sehun says. 

“I shouldn’t,” Baekhyun says. It comes out muffled, the fur so close to his face that he almost gets it in his mouth. He moves it out of his way quickly. “I’m just here for…”

He pulls out a jar and makes to hand it to Sehun, but Sehun immediately steps back and evades him.

“Thank you,” Sehun says, genuine. “Thank you for coming by, even though you probably didn’t want to.”

“I--it’s not that,” Baekhyun says. “It’s complicated.”

“If we’re going to have a conversation,” Sehun says, stepping aside, “please come inside.”

Baekhyun hesitates.

“Baekhyunnie,” Sehun says, just a hint of a whimper.

_Fuck._

The hut looks familiar to him, and Baekhyun walks to the fire where Sehun’s fathers are sitting, one with a book, one sewing up a boot. Baekhyun watches with helpless eyes as Sehun wanders back to his room, leaving Baekhyun alone in the main room with his fathers.

“Baekhyun,” one of Sehun’s fathers, the alpha says. His eyes are warm, like his son’s. “Welcome.”

“Thank you, Alpha,” Baekhyun says before addressing the both of them. “I’m sorry to interrupt.”

“Nonsense,” the other, the omega says. “There’s nothing to interrupt.”

“I just...I came with,” Baekhyun says, handing the jar to the omega. “It’s bound to get colder tonight, so we wanted to be prepared.”

“Thank you,” the alpha says. “Give your mother our thanks as well.”

“I will,” Baekhyun nods.

“Baekhyun,” Sehun calls.

“I’ll just…” Baekhyun says, pointing in the direction of Sehun’s room.

“Go, go,” the omega says, shooing him away and smiling knowingly.  

So Baekhyun walks through the tiny hall to where Sehun sits on his bed.

“I don’t...I don’t want to do this,” Baekhyun says. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t,” Sehun says. “I trust you.”

 _You shouldn’t_ , Baekhyun thinks.

“How much did you see?” Baekhyun asks. “Tell me.”

“All of it,” Sehun says. “I saw everything.”

That can’t be true. There’s no way it could be true. Because if Sehun saw what Baekhyun saw, there would be no way he would want Baekhyun. He wouldn’t sign up for this. He wouldn’t want to be anywhere near someone so _cursed,_ tainted by the hand of misery. He wouldn’t be so _calm_.

“Did you?” Baekhyun asks. “Did you really?”

“I would never lie to you,” Sehun says. “You’re my omega.”

After the worst of the winter passes, Baekhyun walks outside to melting snow and a package next to his door with his name scrawled in messy handwriting.

Tucked inside are two snow-deer pelts, winter white like Sehun’s wolf’s coat.

  
☽

 

_Baekhyun is there, and Sehun is waiting._

Baekhyun crosses to him, closing the ugly space between them and stealing a kiss from his lips.

"Is this a shared dream?" Baekhyun asks. "Is that what this has been?" 

"I think so," Sehun says. "But does that make it less real?" 

Baekhyun wants to say _yes_ , but he can't find it in himself. 

“It’s almost time,” Sehun says. “The new moon is rising tomorrow. You’ll come back to me soon.”

Baekhyun hums, happy with the thought. It will be a trial, he thinks, to keep a secret, but he won’t mind terribly. It’ll be fun, he convinces himself. Sehun unaware, stalking around with those broad shoulders, not knowing what’s in store.

“I’ll know,” Sehun says, hugging Baekhyun close. “I’ll remember.”

“I don’t think you will,” Baekhyun teases. “Forgetful boy.”

“I’ll bring you violets,” Sehun muses. “I’ll remember.”

“Sure,” Baekhyun says. “Whatever you say, Sehun-ah.”

Sehun sighs. Baekhyun strokes fingers through his hair.

“Say it again,” Sehun says.

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun says, lips against his ear.

“I’ll come for you,” Sehun says. “I don’t care what anyone says. We don’t have to wait.”

“Don’t be silly, puppy,” Baekhyun says. He slaps at his shoulder. “We do this correctly or not at all.”

“What’s so correct about waiting?” Sehun asks.

“I--I don’t know, it’s just how it’s supposed to be done,” Baekhyun says.

“I never thought you to be that type of wolf,” Sehun says, his fingers in Baekhyun's hair. “Passive little omega.”

“Hey!” Baekhyun says, slapping Sehun’s shoulder harder this time. “None of that!”

“I’m not doing anything,” Sehun smiles.

“You just want to spend your next rut with me,” Baekhyun says. “Before it’s _proper_.”

Sehun laughs. Goddess, it’s a pretty song.

“You’re so sweet,” Sehun says. “You think such sweet things. It makes it hard not to kiss you.”

Baekhyun tilts his head up. Asks for it silently, but Sehun doesn’t give in. Makes him ask for it.

“Then do it,” he finally says.

As soon as Sehun’s lips touch his, everything slips away like sand through his fingers. And quick as it comes, it goes.

 

 

☾

 

It gets more and more difficult for Baekhyun.

When the flowers start to bloom once more, the wolves rejoice, and they run.

He stands next to Chanyeol and Jongin when the darkness settles over them like a thick coat. They all strip down, and it’s as clinical as can be. Except he looks across the forest floor, sees a familiar pair of feet, and he can’t help the way his eyes slide up Sehun’s body, honey-slow.

Sehun meets his eye-line, and Baekhyun turns his back to Sehun before he realizes what he’s doing.

“Is he looking?” Baekhyun asks Chanyeol.

“Who?”

“Don’t play dumb,” Baekhyun says.

“Of course he’s looking,” Chanyeol laughs. “He’s always looking.”

Baekhyun turns back around, and he struggles to keep his hands at his sides. He wants to cover himself. Wants to be shielded, in some small way, from the heat of Sehun’s gaze. Baekhyun doesn’t move though, just locks eyes with him before Sehun smirks, staring straight at Baekhyun's lower half.

Baekhyun’s hit squarely with the memory of his arousal. He’s been with Sehun before, has lain with him, and even if it wasn’t on this plane, it was real. He can still feel Sehun’s breath on the back of his neck. He can still feel Sehun moving inside him. Still feel him on his skin like a stain.

“Goddess,” Chanyeol says, nose wrinkling. “Gross, you smell like heat.”

“Quiet, I’m nowhere close,” Baekhyun says.

“Then stop looking at him like you want to jump on his knot, and focus on not stinking up the place,” Chanyeol says. “There are puppies present. Get a grip.”

Baekhyun shakes his head and tries to think of anything else, even though he can still feel Sehun’s eyes on him.

It’ll be easier when they run, Baekhyun thinks. He’ll feel more settled in his skin.

When he shifts, though, when everyone howls, he feels worse. He watches Sehun run, fluid and beautiful in the white-blue light of the moon. He follows close behind, feels drawn by an invisible tether to follow wherever Sehun leads him.

The pack circles the mountain, and the Baekhyun looks to the peak, sees the Moon Lady’s blessing: the yellow and green light dancing around the mountain’s summit. It will be a good spring. The wolves yip at the sight of it. The glorious, stunning light. 

Baekhyun runs free, feels the wind put waves in his fur. It feels wonderful, feels almost better than anything he’s ever felt. He feels the past moons move behind him. Closes his eyes and huffs. Moves his legs quicker, feels the soil under his paws.

The pack splinters for the night, some running east and some west and some back home. Baekhyun moves on his own. He runs the familiar path along the river, the sounds of the shadow-cats purring in their sleep lulling him calm.

He smells Sehun before he hears him. Goddess, he _is_ quiet.

Baekhyun slows when Sehun makes a whimper he’s never heard his wolf make before. Slows to a stop.

Sehun moves on him, and Baekhyun whines. His wolf is powerless to this. Wants it so much. When Sehun is finally close enough, he bites at Baekhyun’s muzzle gently. Baekhyun bites back, pounces a little in order to bite close to Sehun’s ear. Sehun licks at his face, and Goddess, it’s nice, it’s _wonderful_ , it’s much too good.

Baekhyun runs.

He doesn’t stop running either, moving as fast as he can. He can practically feel Sehun closing in on him, much faster than Baekhyun could dream to be, but he doesn't move to overtake him. Just follows close behind so as not to lose him. But Baekhyun doesn’t stop until they’re running side by side through the center of the pack ground.

Baekhyun shifts, breathless and his lungs screaming at him, before Sehun grabs him by the arm.

“Please,” Sehun says. “Please, I don’t want to be apart anymore.”

“We have to,” Baekhyun says. “We can’t be together.”

“Why not?” Sehun asks. “What are you so afraid of?”

Baekhyun stalks away, walks back to his home.

“You can’t keep running,” Sehun calls. “You can’t keep running away from this. I’m your fucking _destiny_ , Omega.”

 _Destiny_. Baekhyun would spit on destiny if he could.

 

☽

 

_Baekhyun is not much different than he is now, but a new moon rises. Dark and high._

His hair is carefully braided, and he sits in a room familiar to him. He's been here before, but where is this? His brain won't clear.  

Where is he, he wonders for a moment as the scene pieces together like his eyes are clearing sleep, but the scent tips him off before everything is crystal clear. It smells too sweet. Too familiar.

Baekhyun sits in the corner of their room,  _their_ room, and he sees flowers dry in his own hands. The peonies, pansies, the Dragon’s Mouth, the Starslilies, the Houndsblood, the Sparrow Lace. And there’s bell-root too, but it hasn’t dried. Still looks as fresh as it would if it was still resting in the earth, ringing out like memory.

Baekhyun’s eyes snap to Sehun’s body. Laid back on furs. A bluebear pelt thrown over him. Not just any bluebear pelt. Baekhyun’s. That fur belongs to him.

“Don’t say anything,” Baekhyun says and when he looks, he has the stain of tears on his face. “Don’t say a word.”

Baekhyun doesn’t. Wouldn’t. Doesn’t even know if he could say anything here.

But why is this sad, he wonders. Why is he crying?

“You need to stop it,” he says. “You need to make sure this doesn’t happen. Protect him. Keep him safe. Don’t let him touch you. Don’t let him fall. Don’t let him Sleep.”

Dread sits heavy in Baekhyun’s stomach, and the room is full of his panic, reeking like death.

Because the last thing Baekhyun sees, before he’s ripped back from the dreaming place and planted back in his bed, before he wakes from his own Sleep, is Sehun not waking from his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so........ sry abt that
> 
> just a quick explanation: the sleep is usually solely prophetic dreaming. baekhyun's sleep was special tho! he saw memories, some future events, and had some shared dreams with sehun (who has obviously yet to sleep). 
> 
> i was inspired by some different Real Life things like ayahuasca, a traditional medicinal drink used by the indigenous people of the amazon basin, and also kykeon, an ancient greek drink thats purported to have contained a certain hallucinatory fungus. also also immediately after i started writing this story i went to see black panther for the first time lol and the ancestral plane was really pretty and stuck out in my brain. 
> 
> forewarning: the story will get sad and then it will get happy and then it will get sad and then it will get happy again! just over and over again. ad infinitum. ultimately, though, it has a happy ending, but i do understand that angst isnt for everyone! i just thought i'd let u know here that it def does get a little more serious and sad and stuff, so if u wanna dip out now, i understand! im trash and writing is hard lol 
> 
> i wish i could say next chapter is happy but it is: not. but it is dramatic! and who doesnt love dramatic boys! anyway, thanks again for reading and i hope u enjoy!


	7. blood red

The run emboldens Sehun, and where once he was nowhere, suddenly, he is everywhere. 

Baekhyun doesn’t see much of him throughout the afternoons, both of them busy with their work, but Baekhyun’s days are book-ended by him. He keeps quiet, doesn’t say too much, but always makes his presence known in some way or another. Careful sweeps of his fingers over the back of Baekhyun’s neck, along the collar of his shirt. Gifts left at Baekhyun’s door, flowers or baskets of berries or pelts that are drenched in Sehun’s scent. 

He knows he should refuse. Run. Bar himself in his room until Sehun’s Sleep comes. There’s no way that he can stop the Sleep, he tells himself, but maybe if they aren’t together, if Sehun falls for some other omega, then he’ll wake just fine. 

Baekhyun knows he should push the gifts and the affections away, but he’s weak for Sehun, and maybe, in a secret part of himself, he always has been. Maybe before his Sleep, he was trying to delay the inevitable. Maybe that’s what he’s doing now. 

He puts the thought out of his head. He’ll recommit to it, to keeping them apart. Sehun is a fool, but he is Baekhyun’s fool for now, and that means that Baekhyun will do whatever it takes to keep him safe. Even if it kills him. 

Sehun watches him bathe from the riverbed, looking so pleased with himself. 

“Leave,” Baekhyun commands. 

“Why?” Sehun asks. 

That’s what he does now: he doesn’t disobey, just challenges. Baekhyun fumes. 

“Because I asked you to,” Baekhyun says. 

“I believe you _told_ me to,” Sehun says. “If you asked, you would have asked much nicer. You would have said please, I think. Because you’re such a nice wolf. You’re a nice, pretty wolf, and I like you quite a bit.” 

Baekhyun ignores him and submerges himself, opening his eyes under the water to see all the little minnows and flash frogs light up beneath him. He picks one up, feels the warmth in his palm as it flashes three times in quick succession to try and scare the predator off. He didn’t mean to scare it. Baekhyun puts it back down, and breaks the surface of the water, taking a deep breath of air.

“You look so nice in the water,” Sehun says. “It’s a wonder you weren’t born a fish.” 

Baekhyun shoots a look at Sehun, who just laughs that same bell-root waking laugh, beautiful and joyous down to its core. 

“I would join you if I didn’t think you’d run away,” Sehun says. 

Baekhyun doesn’t answer, just rubs his hands through his hair. 

“It would be nice,” Sehun says, smiling. “We could warm up the river.” 

Baekhyun dunks his head under the water again, tries to fight off the image of his body tangled with Sehun’s in the river. Baekhyun’s legs wrapped around Sehun’s waist, his arms wrapped around his neck. Sehun’s mouth at his throat. He gets hard, wet at the thought, and it's frighteningly quick. Would it be different, here? Better? He thinks it would be. Must be. 

“Ah,” Sehun says. “You want that.” 

Baekhyun shuts his legs in the water.

“I know you do,” Sehun says. “I can smell it. It’s so familiar. Isn’t that funny? I know what your sex smells like, but I haven’t even had you yet.” 

Sehun kicks his legs, feet in the water. 

“I want it too,” Sehun says. “More than I want my next breath. You knew that, of course, but I have no trouble reminding you. If you ever forget.”

“Alpha,” Baekhyun says, “please.” 

“Please what?” Sehun asks. “Just say the word, and it’s yours.” 

Baekhyun forces his eyes shut, forces the simmering boil of arousal in his stomach to quiet. He doesn’t say anything, just stands there in the waist-deep water, begging Sehun to make it easier for him. 

“Baekhyun,” Sehun says, and Baekhyun opens his eyes to see Sehun looking at him sadly. “Finish up. I’ll walk you home.” 

He feels like a puppy, patted dry and dressed again, led back to his bed by a gentle but insistent hand at his lower back.

 

 

☽

 

 

He sits with Chanyeol and Jongin, the three of them passing a bottle of Chanyeol’s father’s ice wine back and forth, their noses and the tips of their ears red with drunkenness and the cold of the drink. 

“It’s special,” Chanyeol said, when they had first sat down on the bank of the river. “You let the grapes freeze through the winter. And then...before the world warms, you crush them. Strain out all the skins, let it sit until the next summer. There you go. Ice wine. Stays cold forever. Best stuff in the world. No aftereffect. No headaches in the morning. Just ice cold.” 

He had kissed the bottle exaggeratedly, and Baekhyun had rolled his eyes. 

Baekhyun isn’t much of a drinker, doesn’t like the way it makes him feel. All pliant. He indulges that night. He doesn’t know why.  

“Why are you hiding?” Chanyeol slurs once they’re through almost half the bottle. 

“I’m not hiding,” Baekhyun says. “Be quiet.” 

“He’s hiding,” Jongin snickers. 

“I am not,” Baekhyun says. “You big dumb alpha.” 

“Here,” Chanyeol says, passing the bottle to Baekhyun. “Relax. I can smell how tense you are.” 

Baekhyun takes a biting sip that’s like the coldest, cleanest, sweetest water he’s ever tasted. It freezes its way down into his stomach, and he shivers. 

“Good omega,” Jongin says, and Baekhyun slaps him on the arm. 

“Sehun’s coming later with Junmyeon,” Chanyeol says. “So you better get lost before then. Oh, I forgot. You aren’t hiding.” 

“I’m not,” Baekhyun reiterates, but he drinks his fill and stumbles back to his hut before Sehun shows.

 

☾

 

 

“Is anyone sitting here?” Sehun asks.

He knows damn well no one is sitting beside Baekhyun, but Sehun asks anyway, because Sehun is torturing him. 

“Yes,” Baekhyun grits out. 

Sehun sits down anyway, his thigh against Baekhyun’s. He leaves his scent all over Baekhyun, all over Baekhyun’s clothes. No matter how much he washes them, he can’t seem to get the honeysuckles away. 

“How have you been, Omega?” Sehun asks. 

“You’ve seen me,” Baekhyun says. 

“You look well, as always,” Sehun says, and Baekhyun wishes he wasn’t so susceptible. “How have you been, though? How are you feeling?” 

_ Miserable,  _ he thinks.  _ Absolutely miserable. Miserable because I have no idea how to fix you. How to keep you from slipping away.  _

“Tired,” he says honestly. 

“I smell it,” Sehun says. “Do you take the violet ale?” 

“I don’t,” Baekhyun says. “I don’t need it.” 

Sehun lets out a little huff, and then Baekhyun feels Sehun’s hand on his thigh. 

“Please take good care of yourself,” Sehun says. “Since you won’t let me take care of you.” 

Baekhyun doesn’t know what comes over him, but it shoves him back from the table, the chair clattering behind him with a noise that echoes in the hall. 

“Baekhyun,” Sehun says nervously. He stands up and crosses to Baekhyun, his arm held out. 

“Stay away from me!” Baekhyun says a little louder than he intends to. “Just...don’t come any closer.” 

“Baekhyun, please,” Sehun says, and he looks around. The pack is watching them, nearly one hundred sets of eyes on them. 

Baekhyun runs out of the hall, and to his surprise, Sehun does not follow him. Baekhyun sprints home, throws himself into his bed, and cries. 

  
  


☽

 

 

Smart wolves know not to cross Baekhyun or to spread the rumors about what happened in the hall. 

Baekhyun learns that his pack is full of dumb wolves. 

He can hear them whispering as he passes in the mornings, and he can feel their eyes on him at night. 

He doesn’t get the smiles he used to get as he passes. He doesn’t get the cheerful small talk when he helps someone in the Healer’s House. People look at him with disdain. With dark eyes. 

Baekhyun keeps a count until the Sleep. _10_. He can make it ten moons. 

 

 

☾

 

 

Summer’s upon them, and with the heat of it comes the pups. 

Babies are born left and right, reminders of the happy harvest. Baekhyun helps in the Healer’s House, helps to birth several of them. The scent of the little families becoming complete, dizzyingly content, so incredibly fulfilled, makes him sick. He  _ wants  _ it. He never wanted it before, but he wants it now when he knows he can’t have it. 

His mother watches him and says nothing, but Baekhyun can feel her disappointment looming like a cloud. If he needs to bear it, he will. He will sacrifice his name to save Sehun. He would do it a thousand times, if it meant Sehun got to live. 

 

 

☽

 

 

He picks the thorns off the prickle-rose angrily, depositing them into a bucket with soft  _ ping _ s. Jongdae sits in the corner of the Healer’s House, waiting for Baekhyun to finish. Baekhyun wishes he’d just leave. 

“What’s your problem, huh?” Jongdae asks. “You smell like shit. You’ve been off since your Sleep, and that was ages ago.” 

“Nothing,” Baekhyun says. 

“Sehun’s been upset,” Jongdae says casually. “You know, ever since you yelled at him.” 

Baekhyun cuts his finger on a thorn and a steady little stream of blood drips on the table in front of him. 

“Fuck,” he curses. He sucks at his finger, tries to stop the bleeding. 

“You need to fix it,” Jongdae says. “You need to make things right.” 

“I don’t see what any of this has to do with you,” Baekhyun says curtly. 

Jongdae scoffs, like he knows what Baekhyun’s dealing with. Like he has any fucking clue. 

“Listen,” Baekhyun says, whirling around. “I don’t know what you think you know, but you don’t know anything about this. You don’t know what I saw.” 

“You act like you went to war,” Jongdae says. “Goddess, it’s a bunch of silly prophecy. It doesn’t mean anything.” 

“How can you say that?” Baekhyun asks. “It shows us the future.” 

Jongdae pushes out of his chair. Moves across the room to stand too close to Baekhyun. He looks like he seethes, like venom might leak from his teeth. 

“The future changes every moon,” Jongdae says. “Isn’t that what you’re trying to do anyway? Push Sehun away so you can find some other alpha to mate? That’s what everyone’s saying, you know.  _ Baekhyun must have his eye on some other alpha _ . That’s why no one’s talking to you.”

“Oh, and you believe them?” Baekhyun asks. 

Jongdae shrugs. 

“What else?” Jongdae asks.  

Baekhyun feels like he’s stuck his heart in the bucket full of thorns. 

“Jongdae,” Baekhyun says, hurt. “Truly? You think so little of me?” 

“What am I to think, Baekhyun? You’ve been awful,” Jongdae says. “He loves you. He always has, ever since we were puppies. Everyone knew it. And you might be my best friend, but he’s one of the best wolves I know. I can’t just sit by and act like I don’t care. I do. You need to end this...this nonsense.” 

“Jongdae,” Baekhyun says. “Please. You don’t understand.” 

“What don’t I understand?” Jongdae asks. “What’s so complicated about it, Baekhyun?” 

Tears close his throat for a moment, and it hits him how much Sehun means to him. How much he loves him. He’s seen what could have been in store for them. He knows he wants it. 

“He doesn’t wake,” Baekhyun cries. “He falls to the Sleep.” 

Jongdae’s eyes go wide for a moment before he schools his expression. Disbelief. 

“That’s not funny,” Jongdae says. “Don’t joke about something like that, Baekhyun.” 

“It’s not a joke, Dae,” Baekhyun says. “I saw it. A new moon rose. And he didn’t wake. I don’t want him to...I don’t want it to happen to him. If I let him--if I let him be with me, he’s going to fall.” 

“You don’t know that,” Jongdae says, shaking his head. “You don’t know that for certain.” 

“I know it,” Baekhyun says. “I can feel it in my heart. It’s not a dream. It’s real. And it’s because of me.” 

“No, it isn’t,” Jongdae says. “There’s a way to stop it.”

“I know there is,” Baekhyun says. “If I keep myself away from him, I can’t curse him. If he mates with some other omega...then he lives, and he doesn’t die because of me.”

Jongdae throws his arms around Baekhyun. And the tears fall easy. 

Baekhyun lost Sehun before he even had him.

 

 

☾

 

 

“There has to be something we can do,” Jongdae says. “It’s...it’s not right.” 

“I told you,” Baekhyun says, poking at the fire. “I have to keep away from him. I’m cursed.” 

Jongdae slaps him across the back of the head. Baekhyun deserves it. 

“I grow weary of this kind of talk,” Jongdae says. “You constantly smell like sadness. You aren’t cursed. You’ve done nothing wrong. But you must do something. Something besides quarantine.” 

“What am I to do?” Baekhyun asks. “I…” 

_ Love him, _ he supplies. He’s sick with the thought. 

“Have you thought about...talking to him?” Jongdae asks. 

Baekhyun pushes up from the ground and begins to walk back to his hut. Jongdae scrambles around to follow him, but Baekhyun wishes he wouldn’t. 

“I’m serious,” Jongdae says. “I know it’s scary, but don’t you think he deserves to know what you saw?” 

_ He says he’s seen everything,  _ Baekhyun thinks.  _ How could he have seen it? How could he have seen the end that awaits him and still want me?  _

“I don’t know,” Baekhyun says. “I don’t want to frighten him. I want him to...I want him to live happily. With or without me.” 

Baekhyun makes the mistake of looking to Jongdae’s eyes. They shine with tears, and Baekhyun has had enough crying for the day, so he looks away so that he doesn’t join Jongdae. 

“You love him,” Jongdae says. 

Baekhyun doesn’t trust his voice, so he nods. 

“Talk to him,” Jongdae says. “Promise me.” 

“I…” 

“Promise me,” Jongdae repeats, this time more insistent. 

“I’ll talk to him,” Baekhyun says. 

May the Moon Lady have mercy on him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> remember, kids. communication is important 
> 
> if this chapter feels like a filler, i am very sorry. shit goes down next time tho! and that should be up by friday or saturday night! so i guess that's good? I mean, if you're into this sort of thing. 
> 
> thank you all so very much for your kind words and your interesting questions/theories! i want so badly to respond to all of them aksjdjag but also i dont want to give things away by answering lmao. just know that i rly, truly appreciate the comments, bc it encourages me to keep writing. even when i feel like what im doing is trash, and thats like, essentially whenever im writing lol. anyway! as always, thank you for reading!


	8. green no longer

Baekhyun ventures to the fields, knowing exactly who he will find there. 

“Have you seen Sehun?” he asks. 

Junmyeon works with the harvesters. Baekhyun has the sneaking suspicion that the only reason he hasn’t been appointed Head Harvester is because he’s so many moons younger than the elders who still work there. Something about him is special. Ever since he came of age, the plants have thrived. Baekhyun’s mother tells him that Junmyeon’s got the blood of the Fertile Mother in him, that she watches over him and his crops. 

Baekhyun likes Junmyeon, likes what he does for the pack, of course, but also just...likes him in general. 

Which is why when Junmyeon turns to him, hackles raised, Baekhyun cowers. His scent isn’t kind like it usually is, either: it’s charred like a forest burning, and it’s the meanest Baekhyun’s ever seen him look. 

“What do you want with Sehun?” Junmyeon asks. 

“I want to speak with him,” Baekhyun says. 

“I think you’ve already said enough,” Junmyeon says. “In front of the pack. When everyone heard you tell him to leave you alone.” 

“I-it was a misunderstanding,” Baekhyun says, trying to pump out as much calm as he can. He doesn’t want to fight, especially not with Junmyeon. 

“What did he misunderstand, then?” Junmyeon asks meanly. “What did the whole pack misunderstand, Baekhyun?” 

Tears jump to Baekhyun’s eyes before he can stop them, and he rubs at his eyes, sniffing them back. 

“Oh, don’t  _cry_ ,” Junmyeon says. “Don’t play wounded little omega, Baekhyun, because it might work on everyone else, but it won’t work on me.” 

“I’m not--I’m not doing it on purpose,” Baekhyun says, and he feels tears slip down his face. “I’m sorry.” 

“You don’t have to apologize to me,” Junmyeon says, folding his arms. 

“Then please tell me where he is,” Baekhyun says. “Please.” 

“Why?” Junmyeon asks. “So you can break his heart again?” 

“So I can tell him why I wanted him to leave me alone,” Baekhyun says. “So I can apologize. So I can fix it. Please. I’m trying to fix it. Please, Omega. Please. I want to fix it.” 

Junmyeon folds his arms across his chest, looks Baekhyun up and down with a critical eye. 

“He runs along the North around this time,” Junmyeon says. 

“Thank you,” Baekhyun breathes. “Thank you, Omega. You won’t regret it.” 

“I better not,” Junmyeon says. “And believe you me, if he comes back and he cries to me again, you won’t be a regretful wolf, Baekhyun. You’ll be a dead wolf.”

Baekhyun thinks about Sehun, strong and quiet Sehun, crying in Junmyeon’s arms, and he feels like he’s going to die anyway. 

 

 

☽

 

 

He walks to the sleeping violets, happy to see that they’ve survived the winter well. If anything, he thinks, they’re more lush than he remembers them from those cool autumn nights. Sehun’s body against his own. Sehun’s mouth so close to his. 

Baekhyun lays back in the flowers and stares at the sky. The sun is setting. Sehun will be done with his run soon. He closes his eyes. Tries to relax. 

Before he knows it, he hears a branch break, and a wolf whimpers. 

Baekhyun sits up so fast, he gets lightheaded. 

Sehun stands at the edge of the violets. He looks giant this way. Baekhyun’s so rarely seen him as a wolf without also being shifted himself. Sehun’s wolf is imposing, but his ears are flat against his head. 

“Shift for me,” Baekhyun says softly. 

The wolf doesn’t listen, just drags his paws through the flowers and sits next to Baekhyun. 

Baekhyun gets onto his knees to meet Sehun’s eyes and scratches under his chin. Sehun whimpers again, leans into the touch. 

“Please,” Baekhyun says. “Shift.” 

Sehun’s wolf wanders off, and Baekhyun stands, thinking that maybe he’s already ruined his chance to apologize, to explain, but Sehun reappears, in his human form, dressed. Does he come here every night after his runs are through? Baekhyun’s heart aches at the thought. 

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun says. 

“Don’t,” Sehun says. “If you don’t want to be with me, don’t call me that.” 

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun repeats. 

“Baekhyun,” Sehun whines. “Please.” 

“I’m sorry,” Baekhyun says. “I am.” 

“Okay. I accept your apology,” Sehun says.

“Do you?” Baekhyun asks. 

“Yes,” Sehun says, but he won’t look Baekhyun in the eye, just stares at the violets. 

“Do you know what the last thing I saw was?” Baekhyun asks. “Do you?” 

Sehun looks down to his feet.  

“I don’t wake up,” Sehun says. 

And Baekhyun’s heart breaks. 

“Sehun,” Baekhyun says. “We can stop it. It doesn’t have to be that way. We don’t have to...we can change it.” 

Sehun’s eyes snap to Baekhyun’s with so much force that it almost knocks Baekhyun backwards. 

“I don’t want to change it,” Sehun says. 

“Wh-what? Sehun,” Baekhyun says. “Don’t be...don’t be silly.” 

“If being with you means I fall to the Sleep, then...then I don’t care. I’d rather fall than be without you,” Sehun says. “I don’t want anyone else. I don’t want some other wolf. We were meant to be together. That’s why you saw me in your Sleep. That’s why we  _ met  _ in your Sleep. Do you think that happens to everyone, Baekhyun? It doesn’t. We’re special. There’s something about us that’s _special_. Always has been. Always will be. So no, I don’t want to change it.” 

He huffs out a laugh. 

“I’ve thought about it a lot, you know,” Sehun says. “I saw the way you cried. Heard how silent everything was. How the room smelled like dead winter, like water that’s sat still for too long. And I knew...I knew why you were trying to stay away. Goddess, Baekhyun, I love you for it, but...it’s not your decision to make.” 

“Sehun,” Baekhyun says. “You can’t expect me to just...let it happen.” 

“How do you know that it’s us that it depends on?” Sehun asks. “How do you know it won’t happen either way? How do you know it'll happen at all?” 

“I…I don’t,” Baekhyun says. “It’s just a feeling. It’s just a feeling I have.” 

“Shouldn’t I be happy?” Sehun asks, tears in his eyes. “Don’t I deserve to be happy, Baekhyun?”

“You deserve it more than anyone else I know,” Baekhyun says. “Sehun-ah, I--I just want you to live. I love you.” 

“I love you more than I’ve ever loved anything. I love you more than breathing. I love you more than the moon. And if I'm--if I _am_ cursed,” Sehun says sadly, “shouldn’t I have a few moons of joy before I’m forced to give you up?” 

Lady be damned. If she takes him, if she breaks them apart, it’s her own damn fault, and Baekhyun will never forgive her as long as he lives. 

“You should. You should have whatever you want,” Baekhyun says, voice trembling. “But is this really what you want?” 

“You’re all I’ve ever wanted, Baekhyun. You’ve always known that, Omega,” Sehun says, and Baekhyun’s heart does something wild in his chest. 

He lets go. The levee breaks. 

Baekhyun crushes his mouth to Sehun’s and kisses all the questions out of him, kisses all his own thoughts quiet. Sehun’s hands fit to the small of Baekhyun’s back, pressing their bodies in a tight line, a line Baekhyun feels like they’ve made a thousand, a million times over. 

“Take me,” Baekhyun says. “Please. Sehun-ah, please.” 

Sehun groans, lips at Baekhyun's throat. 

“Even if I haven’t Slept?” Sehun asks. “Even if I haven’t seen the dreams of you?” 

“Please,” Baekhyun says. “Make me yours.” 

“I will, little omega,” Sehun says, lips against Baekhyun’s lips. “But you’ve always been mine, haven’t you? Just like I’ve always been yours.” 

“Goddess, yes,” Baekhyun says, and it’s the only thing he knows. 

Sehun lays him down, and Baekhyun can barely catch his breath with the way Sehun kisses him so completely, like he means to make Baekhyun remember this moment for the rest of his days. Baekhyun gasps and moans into Sehun’s mouth, pushing up into Sehun’s hands. 

They undress each other slowly, and Baekhyun tries to bite back his smiles when he sees each new patch of skin, moving to push Sehun onto his back and pressing kisses wherever he can. 

“Baekhyun,” Sehun moans. 

“I’m going to take good care of you,” Baekhyun says. “You’ve been taking care of me for so many moons. Let me do this for you, Alpha.” 

Baekhyun strips Sehun fully before he finishes stripping himself. 

“Goddess, you smell so good,” Sehun says.

But Sehun smells better, smells like sandalwood and the ever-present honeysuckles, like sex and sweat, smells so good that Baekhyun wants to taste. So he does. 

“ _ Fuck, _ ” Sehun curses, burying his hands in Baekhyun’s hair as Baekhyun kisses down the length of Sehun’s cock and then sucks at the head, a hand wrapped around the base. 

He’s never done this before, but he’s thought about it enough now that it seems natural. He licks eagerly, dragging out moans from Sehun’s chest, and he swallows as much as he can, bobbing his head and sucking hard. Fingers laced with Sehun’s. 

Baekhyun finds he likes the feeling of his mouth full, so he lets himself moan a bit, knowing it will be muffled. Sehun likes it, judging by the way he pulls lightly at Baekhyun’s hair whenever he does it, letting the sounds vibrate through Sehun's body. 

He pulls off, flicks his tongue at the head, and meets Sehun’s gaze. 

“Good?” he asks. 

Sehun whines. Baekhyun grins and gets back to work. 

Baekhyun braces himself, hands on Sehun’s hips as he gets into a rhythm. The noises that pour out of Sehun are deliriously hot, make Baekhyun feel like he’s running a fever or something. He’s encouraged by the sounds, the praise, so he works harder, makes it wetter, sucks harder, swirls his tongue around the tip. 

“Stop, oh Goddess, stop,” Sehun says, and Baekhyun pulls off instantly to watch Sehun’s chest rise and fall rapidly. “Are you sure you haven’t been doing that with other wolves?” 

Baekhyun growls softly, and Sehun laughs, loud. 

“Goddess, you’re just good at everything, aren’t you?” Sehun asks, a hand on Baekhyun’s cheek. “Well, let’s see how good I can be for you.” 

And then, Baekhyun’s world is turning, Sehun flipping him onto his back easily. 

“You could have just asked,” Baekhyun says. “You know I’d go easily.” 

“But then I wouldn’t have gotten to show you how strong I am,” Sehun says, eyes smiling and arms flexing. Baekhyun watches as the muscles shift and tighten under the skin, and he touches. All this time, denying himself. Finally. He could have what he wanted. 

Sehun snakes down his body, sucking idly at his skin but never long enough to bruise. Baekhyun keeps quiet, tries to dampen all the gasps that threaten to escape him. Baekhyun stares up the sky because he thinks that it will all be over too soon if he watches. He feels Sehun lick at him, and he groans, hands tight, about to rip the violets out of the dirt as his hands search for something to hold onto. 

He bites his lip, tries to keep the night near-silent and pure. He can hear the whisper of the shadow-cat’s purr, can feel the owls watching them from the trees. He focuses on anything besides Sehun’s mouth on him, sucking so sweetly. He lets out a moan, long and loud, before he bites down on his lip and remembers himself. 

“Omega,” Sehun says. “None of that.” 

“What?” Baekhyun asks, breathless. 

“I want to hear you,” Sehun says. “I want everyone to hear you.” 

Baekhyun throws his head back and whines at the thought. He wants it too, wants everyone to know who he belongs to. Who belongs to him in return. 

Sehun redoubles his efforts after that, mouth wet and hot and soft around his cock, sucking Baekhyun down like he means to swallow him whole. It’s good, it’s  _ terribly  _ good. He could get addicted to this, Sehun all over him. Leaving his scent on Baekhyun’s hips, fingertips pressing into the bone. 

He takes Baekhyun’s calves in his hands and hoists his legs into the air. 

“What are you doing?” Baekhyun asks. 

Sehun pushes them up, makes Baekhyun grab them. Hold himself spread open. 

“Hold them there,” Sehun says. 

“Are you going to fuck me?” Baekhyun asks, nerves coursing through him, lightning fast. 

“Not yet,” Sehun says. “Wanna make sure you’re ready.” 

Instinct must whisper to him, because Sehun moves so confidently, licking at the backs of Baekhyun’s thighs and making him whine. 

“You sound so pretty, Omega,” Sehun says. “Better than I remember.” 

He noses along Baekhyun’s balls, leaving little kisses as he goes. 

“You smell better than I remember too,” Sehun says. “I almost don’t want to ruin it. You’re perfect just the way you are.” 

“Make me smell like you,” Baekhyun begs. “Please, Alpha.” 

Sehun doesn’t answer, just buries his head between Baekhyun’s legs so that all Baekhyun sees is his hair, and then he feels Sehun’s tongue against his hole. Hot, wet, and insistent. 

“Fuck,” Baekhyun says, letting his legs slip from his grip, falling to rest on Sehun’s back. “Ah, Sehun-ah, please.” 

“Mm,” Sehun says, tasting him again before mumbling against Baekhyun's skin. “You want more?” 

“Yes, Alpha,” Baekhyun says honestly. 

“So good for me,” Sehun praises, and it shoots arousal through Baekhyun so easily. “You taste so good, puppy.” 

Baekhyun means to discourage him for that, means to kick him off for calling him  _ puppy _ , but he only leaks more slick at it and completely betrays himself. 

“You like that?” Sehun asks. He circles his tongue around Baekhyun’s rim, making Baekhyun arch his back, before sucking a kiss to it. “You like when I call you puppy?” 

“Yes, Alpha,” Baekhyun says. He can’t lie, not now. Not when Sehun can smell his lust thick in the air, can feel Baekhyun hard and wet beneath his body. 

“I can see,” Sehun says, rubbing a finger against his hole and then slipping the tip of it inside. “Oh, you’re so wet, puppy.” 

Baekhyun whimpers at how easily he opens for Sehun, whimpers when he feels Sehun’s tongue still lapping at his rim like his slick tastes better than anything Sehun’s ever tasted before. 

“You’re so sweet,” Sehun says. “You taste like honey.” 

Sehun has pretty words, pretty, silly words that Baekhyun doesn’t believe, but it doesn’t stop him from loving them all the same. 

Sehun pushes another finger in alongside the first, and Baekhyun moans when Sehun pets against his walls and teases sounds of pleasure out of him. He stretches Baekhyun diligently, Baekhyun riding his hand and mouth as best he can. 

“Goddess,” Baekhyun gasps. 

“That good, pup?” Sehun asks. 

“So good,” Baekhyun says, and he almost chokes on it when Sehun runs his finger in a tight, little circle around where it feels best. “There. Sehun, there.” 

“There?” Sehun asks, and he’s focused on it now, unrelenting. 

The pleasure fractures out through his body, blisteringly hot waves of it as he tries to chase it. He moves, he can feel himself moving without even thinking about it, his body desperate for more. 

“Look so pretty,” Sehun says, and Baekhyun is moaning. “Look so  _ pretty. _ ”  

He feels the coil of lust in his stomach tighten with the words, feels his orgasm sitting low in him, ready to burst through his skin. 

“I’m ready,” Baekhyun says. “Come on.” 

He flips onto his stomach, back arched. He waits to feel the head of Sehun’s cock against him, but after a couple seconds, he gets impatient and looks over his shoulder. 

“What?” he asks. 

“Is this--are you sure you want it like this?” Sehun asks. 

“I don’t know. What, I mean, how do you want it?” Baekhyun asks. 

“I was...I was thinking we could just,” Sehun says, turning him back over, Baekhyun’s legs spread around his body, running his hands down Baekhyun’s sides, “just stay like this.” 

_ Oh,  _ Baekhyun thinks, looking into Sehun’s warm, dark eyes.  _ This could be good too.  _

“Yeah,” Baekhyun says. “This is good.” 

“Are you ready?” Sehun asks. 

“Yeah,” Baekhyun says. 

He pushes in slow, slow enough that Baekhyun feels like all his breath is gone and gone for good. Baekhyun digs his nails into the meat of Sehun’s shoulder, struggles to say anything at all as Sehun continues to push. It feels never-ending, feels like forever, until finally, Sehun’s finally stopped pushing in. 

“Is--is that all of it?” Baekhyun asks, shaking with effort. “Is it all in?” 

“Yeah,” Sehun says, and with that, his body shudders. Baekhyun’s happy to see that Sehun’s equally as affected. 

“Okay,” Baekhyun says, “okay.” 

“Are you alright?” Sehun asks. 

“I’m--I’m not sure,” Baekhyun asks, before twisting a little, adjusting himself only to feel a shoot of pain run through him. “Oh,  _ fuck _ .” 

“Should I…,” Sehun starts, and he makes to pull out. 

Baekhyun quickly wraps his legs around Sehun’s body, ankles locking. 

“No,” Baekhyun says, worried that if Sehun leaves him now, maybe he’ll never come back. “Don’t. Please don’t.” 

Sehun looks down at him fondly, kisses his nose. 

“I won’t,” he says. “We’ll just stay like this for a while.” 

They do. For longer than Baekhyun can keep track of, Sehun stays inside him, unmoving, as Baekhyun tries to relax, tries to make his body do what it’s meant to do. Sehun distracts him with kisses, with sweet words, with clever fingers playing with his cock. 

Then Sehun kisses Baekhyun’s chin. His jaw. And then a spot on Baekhyun’s neck that would be impossible to forget. 

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun moans as his body finally goes pliant. 

“Right there,” Sehun says. “Remember? Goddess, I remember. I’ll never forget. I’ve never seen such a beautiful mate mark. After my Sleep, pup. Right there. That’s where I’m going to mark you. I’m going to bite you and make sure everyone knows. My omega. My beautiful, perfect, lovel--” 

“Sehun-ah, please,” Baekhyun says. “Fuck me. Please. Mate with me.” 

“Yeah?” Sehun asks. 

Baekhyun pulls Sehun impossibly deeper, guiding him forward with his heels. He groans, hands on Sehun’s biceps. 

“Okay,” Sehun says. “Okay, little omega.” 

He pulls almost all the way out, making Baekhyun break the lock of his legs to spread wide. He keeps his hands by Baekhyun’s head, levers his hips back. Baekhyun groans as Sehun pushes back in, sheathing himself in Baekhyun’s body again. 

“Okay?” Sehun asks. 

“I’m good,” Baekhyun says. “Better than good.” 

Sehun’s eyes go fond, and he dips back down to kiss Baekhyun sweetly on the lips. 

“Yeah?” he asks. 

“Yeah,” Baekhyun says. “You feel good.” 

“Me?” Sehun asks. “You feel...you feel like a dream.” 

“You’re already got me underneath you,” Baekhyun says. “You don’t need to flatter me.” 

“It’s not flattery,” Sehun says, and he pulls out again, pushing back in, relaxed but secure. “Fuck, you feel like you were made for me.” 

_ I was,  _ Baekhyun thinks, but the only way he can respond as Sehun starts to fuck into him to a steady rhythm is to moan Sehun’s name. 

The slide is easy, and it becomes intoxicating when Sehun moves to take Baekhyun in one of his big hands, the head of Baekhyun’s cock wet already. 

“Oh,” Baekhyun says, “oh, Goddess.” 

“That good?” Sehun asks, pumping his hips and moving his hand in time with one another. “That feel good, puppy?” 

“Yes, Alpha,” Baekhyun says. “Goddess, yes.” 

Sehun doesn’t say much, but whenever he offers praise (infrequent but awed comments:  _ you look so good, you feel so good, that’s it, puppy) _ , it shoots straight through Baekhyun like an arrow. His skin feels electrified, and if he was shifted, he’s sure that his wolf would howl out into the night. 

Baekhyun arches, his back bowed, when he begs Sehun for more.

“More?” Sehun asks. 

“Faster,” Baekhyun says. “Please, Alpha.” 

Sehun withdraws his hand and gets up on his knees between Baekhyun’s legs, hands on Baekhyun’s hips. 

He obliges Baekhyun, grants his wish as he drives into Baekhyun faster. It’s dizzying, the spirals of indulgence that swim out across his skin. Baekhyun bares his neck on instinct, a whine high from the back of his throat. 

“Don’t do that,” Sehun says through gritted teeth. “I wanna bite you.” 

_ First thing he wanted, and I mean first thing he wanted after he got his cock inside me, was to bite me.  _ Baekhyun hears it echo through time, and he yips out a laugh at the thought. The more things change.  

“What are you laughing at, huh?” Sehun says, and he pinches at Baekhyun’s nipple. “What’s so funny, little omega?” 

“Nothing,” Baekhyun says, tears at the corners of his eyes. “I’m sorry, I just...I thought of something.” 

Sehun continues to fuck into him, a fast, almost punishing pace, pushing hiccuping breaths out of Baekhyun and into the air above them. 

“What’d you think of, hm?” Sehun asks, panting through it. 

“Nothing, nothing,” Baekhyun says, swatting at Sehun’s hand, but Sehun clearly doesn’t believe him, eyeing him warily. 

“I guess this isn’t enough to make you stop thinking?” Sehun asks, and then suddenly they’re rolling again. 

Baekhyun’s seated fully, legs straddling Sehun’s waist, ass against his legs.  _ Goddess,  _ Sehun looks pretty beneath him, hair all splayed out, the faintest hint of sweat at his brow. 

“Gotta put you to work,” Sehun says, hands spreading Baekhyun’s ass. Raising him up. Dropping Baekhyun back down on his cock.  

“Oh, fuck,” Baekhyun says. 

He pushes up on his knees, twists his hips as he fucks himself back down. Sehun’s fingers dig into his flesh, nails in his skin. 

“That’s it, puppy,” Sehun says. “Ride me.” 

Heat turns in Baekhyun’s stomach at the order, and he closes his eyes as he serves Sehun. He works himself into a rhythm, tries to move his hips smoothly as he fucks himself on Sehun’s cock. He feels filthy, rolling his hips, and a tiny part of him feels shame for how much he loves it, how addicted he already is to it. 

He bites his lip at how good it feels, at Sehun’s hands guiding him, and his thighs ache by the time he wraps a hand around his cock for some relief. 

“You wanna come?” Sehun asks, and he shifts his legs underneath Baekhyun’s body before he plants his feet and thrusts up into Baekhyun. 

His head lolls backwards, body going limp. 

“Yes,” he gasps. “Yes, please.” 

An arm wrapped around his waist, Sehun puts him onto his back once more, and the night is so saturated by them, by their scent, that Baekhyun nearly chokes on it. 

Sehun fucks into him with long, fluid movements of his hips, and Baekhyun can do little more than take it. It’s good, it’s  _ perfect _ , it’s better than he ever thought possible, and now he realizes why he never sees freshly-mated wolves for weeks after. He doesn’t want to do anything but this. He wants Sehun with him always. He wants Sehun to have him every way. 

This is where Sehun belongs, throwing his head back, throat bared to the sky, because of the way Baekhyun feels around him. He feels power course through him.  _ He  _ did that.  _ He  _ made Sehun look like that. 

Baekhyun can feel it pushing against him before Sehun says anything. His knot.  _ Goddess _ , it’s huge. If Baekhyun didn’t know otherwise, he wouldn’t know if his body was built to accommodate something of its size. 

“Please,” Baekhyun says, trying to scoot closer to take it inside him. 

“We--,” Sehun starts, but Baekhyun ignores him, locks his ankles around Sehun’s middle again and tries to pull him in. “Baekhyun.” 

“Please,” Baekhyun begs. “Knot me.” 

Sehun shudders out a breath, hands in the dirt by Baekhyun's head. 

“I want it,” Baekhyun says. “Sehun-ah, please, I want it.” 

Everything else that Baekhyun once feared, everything else that he wants with every part of him now... _ I want your mate mark at my throat,  _ he thinks.  _ I want you to breed me full. I want your puppy inside me. I want to bear you sons and daughters. I want to raise them to be sweet and strong like you. I want to grow old with you. And when we can no longer run, when we can no longer walk, when we can no longer breathe or pump blood through our bodies, I want to be buried next to you under the sleeping violets.  _

Everything else goes unspoken. 

“Okay,” Sehun says. 

Sehun grinds his body into Baekhyun’s, fingers teasing along Baekhyun’s rim. 

“Relax,” Sehun orders, but it’s not a simple task. “Come on, puppy. You can do it.” 

Baekhyun focuses on letting the tension leak out of his body, comforted by the warmth of Sehun’s body and of his voice. When he feels Sehun’s finger slip into his body alongside his cock, he gasps. 

“Good omega,” Sehun says. “Good boy.” 

“More,” Baekhyun says. “More, please.” 

“Be patient. I don’t want to hurt you,” Sehun says, and in the back of his mind, Baekhyun’s grateful for it because his head is swimming with lust, and he can’t think straight like this. 

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun says, trying to goad him into it anyway. “Please, Alpha.” 

But Sehun ignores him, focuses on stretching him with one finger and then, after a torturously long while, two. 

“Knot me,” Baekhyun moans. “Sehun-ah, knot me, puppy. Do it.  _ Do it. _ ” 

Baekhyun groans brokenly as Sehun thrusts his hips once, hard, and the knot finally,  _finally_ locks inside him. 

“Fuck,” Sehun cries out. “Baekhyun. Omega.” 

“Yours,” Baekhyun says, and then Sehun’s mouth is on his, Sehun’s hand on his dick. 

“I’m going to make my omega come,” Sehun says, and Baekhyun whimpers, bares his neck for his alpha to claim. Sehun leans down, mouth against his throat. “I’m going to make you come on my knot.”

“Yes,” Baekhyun says, thrusting his hips up, watching as his cock slides easy through the circle of Sehun’s fingers. “Goddess,  _ yes _ .” 

More slick leaks from him the closer he hurdles towards the edge, and the knot feels so good in him that Baekhyun can’t even fathom how he was nervous about this once, about the pain that might come along with it. There’s no pain now, just pure, undiluted, unadulterated pleasure as Sehun rocks his hips in and in. 

He comes with heaving, whining breaths, and as he spills over his stomach, he pulls Sehun into a kiss that he can’t focus on, a kiss he moans through. Sehun sucks on his tongue, milks his cock through the orgasm and a little after. 

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun whimpers. “Ah, Alpha.” 

“Too much?” Sehun asks, fingers light along the shaft of his spent cock. 

Baekhyun chokes on his answer, shivering all over and sending shivers through Sehun too. 

“Please. Come inside me,” Baekhyun says. “Breed me.” 

“Omega,” is the only thing Sehun manages before he comes deep in Baekhyun, the most satisfying thing Baekhyun can imagine. Pulsing and tight. He wraps his arms around Sehun, pulls him to his chest, and kisses his neck until the tension is gone from him, and he falls weak in Baekhyun’s embrace. 

He doesn’t know how long they lay there, but Baekhyun watches as the stars dance above them. It is the best night of his life, he realizes belatedly. He belongs to someone, and it feels like, after a long journey, finally being home. 

 

 

☾

 

 

Sehun walks him to his door, huddles in close, and kisses Baekhyun once more. 

“We should have washed more thoroughly,” Baekhyun says. “My parents are going to smell me.” 

“Smell  _ me, _ ” Sehun smiles, and  _ Goddess, _ it is so good to see him smile. 

Baekhyun slaps his shoulder anyway. 

“Behave now,” Baekhyun says. 

“Never,” Sehun says. “You’re going to have to carry a stick from now on to keep me away.” 

He shouldn’t encourage it more than he already has, but Baekhyun’s face splits into a smile, and Sehun kisses him again. 

“Go ahead,” Sehun says. “I’ll be here in the morning.” 

“Promise?” Baekhyun asks. 

“Little omega,” Sehun says as brushes the back of his hand along Baekhyun’s cheek. Baekhyun’s eyes flutter closed. “I’ll be here whenever you want me to be. For the rest of our lives.” 

_ Our lives,  _ Baekhyun thinks. What a pretty thought. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so....explicit rating finally earned, i think! 
> 
> i never feel confident in my porn writing, so hopefully it wasnt like, God Awful!!! i just love Sex With Feelings. emotions are the best! 
> 
> thanks for reading and thanks for all who have commented! i am, after all, a big slut for comments. 
> 
> believe it or not, this is around abt the halfway point of the story! i have about 45k written as it stands, and i think it will wrap up around 50 or so. wild! or maybe i just ramble a lot! anyway, i hope you enjoyed this chapter and that u continue to enjoy the story! if not, you can always stream baby dont stop by nct u. actually, now that i mention it, i think that would be a better use of your precious time.


	9. sienna

Baekhyun wakes the next morning and wonders how they’ll tell the pack that they’re together.  _Back_ together in the pack’s eyes, he guesses, though they were never really together in the first place.

He wonders how they’ll view him. How kind they’ll be to him. Whether or not they’ll accept it. Whether they’ll change their mind on him.  

He wonders what the best way to break the news is, but all his time wondering proves useless because as soon as Baekhyun walks outside, Sehun is standing there smiling at him.

“My omega,” he says, all too pleased. Baekhyun looks around and sees the wolves on their way to breakfast watching them carefully as they pass.

Sehun pays them no mind, though, just takes Baekhyun in his arms, runs his fingers over the column of Baekhyun’s neck, and then kisses him soundly. Baekhyun is winded by the time that Sehun breaks them apart, hands on Baekhyun’s neck possessively.

“How did you sleep, little omega?” Sehun asks.

“I slept well, Alpha,” Baekhyun says before adding quietly, “though I would have slept better next to you.”

Sehun’s eyes flash, and he kisses Baekhyun fiercely, tongue licking into his mouth, making him moan. Baekhyun responds in kind, letting one of Sehun’s thighs slip between his own.

“Careful,” Sehun says as Baekhyun pushes into the muscle of Sehun’s leg. “Everyone will smell you.”

Baekhyun scoffs, but he does step back to close his thighs.

“What about you, puppy?” Baekhyun says. “You think no one can smell you, hm?”

“The difference is that I don’t care if they smell me,” Sehun says. “You’re the respectable one.”

Baekhyun doesn’t feel all that respectable at the moment, especially not when Sehun starts mouthing at Baekhyun’s ear and Baekhyun arches into it, offering himself up to Sehun to take however he wants. For a moment, a deep, tugging feeling in the pit of Baekhyun’s stomach wants to beg Sehun to bite him. To mark him for good.

“I already want to knot you again. I can’t stop thinking about it. About you,” Sehun says, breath warm and voice deceptively soft. “Everyone’s going to know that we’ve lain together. I can’t wash it off me.”

And Baekhyun doesn’t want it washed off. Even in the light of day, he still wants everyone to know.

“Alpha, stop,” Baekhyun says, fists against Sehun’s chest. “The sun has barely risen.”

“You look so pretty in the light, though. If you’d let me, I’d mate with you right here,” Sehun says, and Baekhyun gasps as his body reacts to the words, to the scent of Sehun’s arousal.

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun says, even though he has half a mind to ask for it.  

“Ah,” Sehun says, extricating himself from the embrace. “You’re right. We have all the time in the world.”

The number hangs between them despite Sehun’s confidence.  _Eight moons._ They’ll make the most of it. Baekhyun will make sure of that.

“You’re stinking up the place,” Junmyeon calls. “If you’re going to eat, bathe before you go. And bathe  _separately._ ”

Baekhyun buries his face in his hands, but Junmyeon had offered them a smile, so Baekhyun feels like it’s worth it.

“Come on then,” Sehun says, dragging him off in the direction of the river.

“He said separately,” Baekhyun says, laughing.

Sehun scoffs, says, “He’s not my omega, I don’t have to listen to him.”

And Baekhyun can’t find any way to argue with him.

 

 

☽

 

 

They walk hand in hand through the grounds and into the hall, and Baekhyun is proud. Sehun is his, and it’s enough to put a fluttery feeling in Baekhyun’s stomach. He’s giddy, he realizes. Flustered and in love.

“Sit, puppy,” Sehun says once they’re at their table. “I’ll be right back.”

“I can feed myself, _puppy_ ,” Baekhyun says.

“Obviously,” Sehun says, rolling his eyes, before he’s off to get their food. Baekhyun watches him go, the broad line of his shoulders enough to make Baekhyun bite his lip.

“This is almost worse than before.”

Baekhyun looks over at Jongdae, sitting across from him, looking thoroughly disgusted.

“Goddess, you didn’t even realize I was here, did you?” Jongdae says incredulously.

“Should I be honest?” Baekhyun smiles.

“No need,” Jongdae says, shoving food into his mouth and then talking right through his chewing. “You two are the talk of the pack with the little stunt you pulled earlier.”

Baekhyun’s stomach twists pleasantly.

“A wolf’s not allowed to kiss his mate?” Baekhyun asks.

“Mates can do whatever they like,” Jongdae says before his eyes go soft with a smile. “I’m happy for you, you know.”

“Thank you,” Baekhyun says. “For everything.”

Jongdae waves a hand, waves his thanks away.

“It was nothing,” Jongdae says. “Couldn’t let you be a pariah forever. You are my best friend after all.”

Baekhyun laughs loudly, but in the din of the hall, it’s swallowed up.

“How, um,” Jongdae says, leaning forward, “how did he take it?”

He twists his fingers together in his lap.

“We’re…,” Baekhyun begins before shaking his head and changing course. “Come what may, right?”

Jongdae’s smile is sad, and Baekhyun wants to wipe it away.

“Come what may,” Jongdae says.

 

 

☾

 

 

“Don’t go,” Baekhyun says, Sehun’s body pressed against him so nicely.

Sehun walked him to the Healer’s House after they’d finished eating, but being away from him for even one moment seemed like it would mean a moment wasted.

“I’ll see you at sundown,” Sehun says. “Promise.”

He seals it with a kiss and a smile.

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun says. “Can’t you stay?”

Sehun huffs, kisses him again, this time deeper. More lush.

“I’ll see you at sundown,” he repeats. “Be good, hm? Be a good puppy.”

“I wanna be a good puppy,” Baekhyun pouts, a hand flat on Sehun’s stomach and edging lower. “For my alpha.”

He’s teasing now, trying to rile Sehun up, and it works beautifully. Sehun growls, hands firm on Baekhyun’s neck as he licks Baekhyun’s mouth open and sucks on his tongue.

“Tonight,” Sehun says, biting at Baekhyun’s bottom lip. “You’ll finish what you started.”

“Yes, Alpha,” Baekhyun moans before kissing Sehun again.  

“Baekhyun!”

They leap back from each other and turn to see Baekhyun’s mother sticking her head out from the hut and tapping her foot.

“You were due earlier in the morning than this, child,” she says.

“Sorry, Omega,” Sehun says, bowing to Baekhyun’s mother in apology.

“And you,” she scolds, turning on Sehun. “Shouldn’t you be on a hunt by now?”

“Yes, Omega,” he says. “Sorry, Omega.”

“Hurry up now,” she says. “Say goodbye and get to work.”

She steps back behind the curtain, and Baekhyun stands on his toes to kiss the tip of Sehun’s nose.

“You got me into trouble with your mother,” Sehun whines. 

“Oh, she’s soft,” Baekhyun says, “especially to you. She always thought you were so cute.”

“And what about her son, hm?” Sehun asks, arms around Baekhyun’s waist again. “Did he always think I was cute?”

Baekhyun smacks him on the shoulder.

“Obviously,” Baekhyun says, stealing one more kiss before Sehun can take his leave.

 

 

☽

 

 

The day moves slow, and Baekhyun feels like he’s wading through mud. When they pick the poppy pods, shaking the seeds from them, the Father’s light feels warm on his skin and reminds him of the heat of Sehun’s body, wrapped around him. When he’s grinding the Cure Coal with his pestle, he thinks of the first memory from his Sleep, back when Sehun was so tiny that Baekhyun was still bigger than him. It’s hard to think about anything besides Sehun. He seems to color everything in Baekhyun’s world.

“Baekhyun.”

“Huh?” Baekhyun says.

“Child,” his mother says, smiling. “Go. The sun is almost set, and you’re of no use to me like this.”

“I’m sorry,” he says, “I’ll focus.”

“You won’t,” she laughs. “Goddess, and what am I going to do? My right hand healer’s in love.”

Baekhyun feels a blush creep onto his face.

“Mother,” he says.

“Go, go,” she orders. “And tell him that your father wants to speak to him soon.”

" _Mother,_ ” Baekhyun says.

She laughs, and Baekhyun almost runs out of the hut to look for his alpha.

 

 

☾

 

 

Baekhyun lays back and watches the stars as he waits for Sehun, the sleeping violets his bed. His eyes flutter closed once or twice before he forces them open again, the heat of the day still not spent, keeping him deliciously warm among the flowers.

“Baekhyun,” Sehun says.

He opens his eyes to see Sehun standing above him, looking like a servant of the Moon Lady, the setting sun his halo. Baekhyun’s unsure how much time has passed since he laid down, but it’s a blessing to wake like this.

“Hi,” Baekhyun says, and a yawn punches its way out of him.

“Tired?” Sehun asks.

“It’s the violets, I swear,” Baekhyun says. “I’m not tired.”

Sehun lays down beside him, and Baekhyun huddles close, Sehun’s arm around him.

“Ah, rest, little omega,” Sehun says, a hand in Baekhyun’s hair. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Maybe it’s silly of him. Maybe it’s naive, but Baekhyun trusts Sehun: absolutely and with his whole heart.

 

 

☽

 

 

When he wakes, the night is upon them, bathing them in black.

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun says, pushing up to lean over him. “You fell asleep.”

“Mm,” Sehun stretches. “I fell asleep because you fell asleep.”

“Blame it on the violets,” Baekhyun says.

“I’ll blame it on you,” Sehun says, surging up to kiss Baekhyun before dropping back down. “I missed you today.”

“I missed you,” Baekhyun says. “My mother sent me away early. I was getting no work done.”

“I scared away three six-horned elk,” Sehun laughs. “Jongin was close to killing me.”

“What had you distracted, hm?” Baekhyun asks. He lets his fingers dip down the slope of Sehun’s neck.

“You know damn well,” Sehun says, and he feels Sehun’s hand slide down the small of his back until he pulls Baekhyun in closer, a hand on his ass.

Baekhyun makes a noise of satisfaction and puts his mouth to Sehun’s throat.

“You could mark me, you know,” Sehun says. “I would...I would like it if you did.”

Baekhyun pulls back to look at him. He’s so incredibly, almost  _unbelievably_ gorgeous laid in the flowers, his hair splayed.

“Really?” Baekhyun says. “You’d want that?”

“I can’t stop thinking about it,” Sehun says sheepishly. “I understand if you want to wait, but…”

“No,” Baekhyun says, cutting him off. “I don’t want to wait.”

The secret's out, never much of a secret to start with. There isn't anything to wait for, Baekhyun reasons.

“Up,” Baekhyun says, and he pulls Sehun up and strips him of his shirt before laying him back down softly. He leans down, fingers skimming across Sehun’s skin as he picks his spot.

“Here?” Baekhyun asks, teething at Sehun’s collarbone.

“Yes, Omega,” Sehun says. “Please.”

Baekhyun kisses him there at the collarbone, sucks the skin into his mouth and watches it redden. He laces his fingers together with Sehun’s.

“Please,” Sehun says again, and Baekhyun always listens to his alpha.

He bites down hard, breaks skin easily, and feels the charm, the spell, the supernatural work of the ancestors flow through his body and into Sehun’s.

It’s the oldest of their magic, the love magic. The most basic, too, so simple that even puppies can understand. The mark binds them to you, binds their spirit to yours. Baekhyun feels suns and moons and stars, the glittering dust of galaxies pulse through him, move from him to Sehun. Sehun’s body goes rigid, stiff like wood. Baekhyun resists the urge to release him too soon to check on him. He doesn’t want to give Sehun an ugly mark. He wants the teeth marks pristine, not jagged and juvenile like an overexcited puppy, biting someone without knowing what it means.

Baekhyun knows what it means.  

His mouth tingles after a while, Sehun’s skin almost effervescent. _It worked._

When he pulls back, the blood that trickles out is deep red-brown like the earth’s clay. Old blood. Old as time itself.

Baekhyun licks the mark clean and he watches in awe as the wound heals before his eyes, watches as the skin knits itself clean and fresh, scar pink on Sehun’s collar.

“Baekhyunnie,” Sehun says, dazed.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun says, transfixed by the mark that stares back at him. Sehun is his. Forever.

 _Please,_ Baekhyun thinks, _please take me. Make me yours and yours alone._

Sehun pushes him by the shoulders until Baekhyun’s back is against the violets. Sehun mouths at Baekhyun’s neck, the long line of his throat. He’s aroused almost painfully fast just from the magic coursing through his veins and Sehun’s body on his.

“Mark me,” Baekhyun finally says. “Please, Alpha.”

“Baekhyun-ah,” he says.

“Please, Alpha,” Baekhyun says. He’ll ask twice if he needs to. He’ll beg for this. He’s not above that. “Mark me.”

“Ah,” Sehun says. “Be good for me. Wait for it.”

“Alpha,” Baekhyun says, “I’m so hot.”

He licks along Baekhyun’s neck, and Baekhyun twitches, desperate for Sehun inside him now that he’s tasted for the first time. He wants it again and again.

“You don’t want to wait?” Sehun asks, and he strokes Baekhyun through his pants.

“No,” Baekhyun says. “I can’t. Don’t make me wait. Sehun-ah, please. Don’t make me wait.”

Sehun takes mercy on him and strips Baekhyun fast, pulls his pants down his legs enough to slick himself up and slide inside, sat up on his knees with his hands on Baekhyun’s hips.

“Sehun,” Baekhyun whines. “Alpha.”

“Is that good?” Sehun asks.

“Yes,” Baekhyun says. Doesn’t elaborate where he could elaborate: _it’s the best thing I’ve ever felt. I feel your soul intertwined with mine. I’ll never love another the way I love you. You make me feel like we have forever._

Baekhyun tugs Sehun down and makes him readjust his positioning so that Baekhyun can keep his mouth on Sehun, lips affixed to his collarbone. He would mark him again if he could. He’d do it a thousand times and a thousand more.

Mating gets better every single time. Baekhyun thinks it _must_ because already, after just a couple minutes of Sehun thrusting inside him, his cock grinding against Sehun’s stomach, he feels himself on the edge.

“Already?” Sehun asks, whispering to Baekhyun’s ear. “You gonna come, little omega? Come on my cock?”

“Yes, Alpha,” Baekhyun says. “Please. Make me come.”

“I’ve been thinking about this since this morning,” Sehun says, and it’s blistering hot. “All day, dreaming of you. You’re stuck in my head, Omega.”

Baekhyun streaks his stomach white, gasping and writhing underneath Sehun as he rides out the aftershocks of his orgasm.

“Knot me,” Baekhyun begs as Sehun’s pace goes erratic. “Knot me, Alpha.”

But Sehun ignores him to pull out, eliciting a deep groan from Baekhyun. He fists his cock over and over again until he adds to the mess on Baekhyun’s abdomen. Sehun stares down at him with hungry eyes, and if Baekhyun didn’t know better, he’d feel like prey under that gaze.

“Mm,” Baekhyun says, hands running through the release and rubbing it into his skin. “I’m a mess.”

“I’ll take care of you,” Sehun says, still breathless as he lowers his head.

Sehun licks him clean before dressing them both again, and that’s enough for now, Baekhyun thinks. They can bathe in the morning.

Sehun tucks Baekhyun into his arms, lays them down on their sides, Baekhyun’s back to Sehun’s front. Legs tangled with each others.

“I love you,” Sehun says, kissing Baekhyun’s ear.

“I love you,” Baekhyun says.

“Mm,” Sehun hums happily. “Thank you. For marking me.”

“Of course,” Baekhyun says, and he’s comforted by Sehun’s embrace, but the desire to be marked in return is near overwhelming. Baekhyun isn’t picky. Sehun could bite him like this, and everyone would see from the angle of the mark that Sehun had bitten him from behind. Leaned over him possessively. What a dizzying thought. “Will you mark me now?”

Sehun is curiously quiet for a while, though, hasn’t answered him, so Baekhyun turns in his hold to face him.

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun says. “Will you mark me?”

“I think we should wait,” Sehun says.

Baekhyun shakes out of the embrace and sits up to look at Sehun with disbelief.

“Wait?” Baekhyun asks. “Why?”

“I just think it would be wise,” Sehun says carefully.

He takes Baekhyun’s hands in his from where he lays, and Baekhyun is momentarily comforted by the action. He breathes out. He can wait, if Sehun wants to.

“Wait how long?” Baekhyun asks. It would be easier if he knew when the end date was, after all.

Sehun plays with Baekhyun’s fingers, and it feels nice, their hands together, but Baekhyun feels nerves rising in him like the river after a storm with the time that slips by without answer.

“How long?” Baekhyun asks. “A half moon?”

Sehun doesn’t answer, eyes trained on their fingers.

“A moon?” Baekhyun asks. “Two moons?”

Sehun tightens around Baekhyun’s hand in his.

“You can’t be serious,” Baekhyun says. “You can’t possibly still want to wait until after your Sleep. You’re joking. You’re...you’re making a joke. Well, you can stop it now, because you’re not funny. You’re utterly humorless, Oh Sehun.”

“Baekhyun,” Sehun says and sits up to take Baekhyun’s face in his hands.

“Don’t,” Baekhyun says. “You’re being silly.”

“I’m being practical,” Sehun says. “If I don’t wake…”

“If you don’t wake, I mourn you as my mate regardless. You bear my mark,” Baekhyun says. “You belong to me. Doesn’t that mean something? Doesn’t that mean _everything_?”

“You...you’re not thinking clearly,” Sehun says. “Time heals some things. With time, maybe you could...maybe you could learn to love someone else.”

“I won’t,” Baekhyun says. “I can’t.”

“You could,” Sehun argues.

“I won’t,” Baekhyun repeats. “Now that I have you, you’re the only wolf I’ll ever have.”

“Baekhyun,” Sehun says, staring down at their hands.

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun says sadly. “You’ll let me do this alone? You’ll take my mark, but won’t give me yours in return?”

“Don’t...don’t make it like that,” Sehun says. “You know it isn’t like that.”

“You’re being selfish,” Baekhyun says.

“ _You’re_ being stupid,” Sehun says.

“Remember what you said? That I can’t make your decisions for you?” Baekhyun says. “Well, you can’t make my decisions for me.”

“You don’t want this, though,” Sehun says.

“You can’t tell me what I want or don’t want,” Baekhyun says. “You belong to me now, and I want to belong to you. _Truly_ belong to you.”

“Baekhyun,” Sehun says. “Omega.”

“You said we’d be together. Don’t you remember? You said you’d build me seven houses,” Baekhyun says. “I want your mark, and I want seven houses. You’re supposed to be my alpha. You’re supposed to take care of me.”

It’s a low blow, he knows, but he’s always been willing to fight dirty to get what he wants. And he wants Sehun. Now and forever.

Sehun huffs. Stands up. Holds his hands out for Baekhyun to grab before lifting him up. Starts pulling him off towards the west.

“Where are we going?” Baekhyun asks.

He stays quiet, just leading Baekhyun off.

It’s a short walk, and it’s not too far from the violets when he sees it: a cabin, or the beginnings of one. The walls are mostly done, the interlocking logs of ironwood laying the groundwork and the walls for a small house. Perfect for two.

He turns back to Sehun, tears in his eyes. Everything looks hazy. Like a dream.

“What is this?” Baekhyun asks.

“Number one,” Sehun says. “And it’s taking longer than I expected, so you best be patient.”

Time seems to stand still as Baekhyun looks at Sehun curiously, unable to figure out how he got so lucky.

“Do you like it?” Sehun asks shyly.

Baekhyun throws his arms around Sehun’s neck. He kisses Sehun messy and good, tears slipping down his face. He can taste the salt on their tongues, tangled.

“You big stupid puppy,” Baekhyun says. “How long have you been working on this?”

“About...six moons or so,” Sehun says casually.

" _Six moons_ ,” Baekhyun says, and he hits Sehun’s shoulder.

“I started cutting down the ironwood the day after the run,” Sehun says. “I knew you’d come around.”

“You…,” Baekhyun says, looking up at it and marveling. “Even after what happened?”

“Even then,” Sehun says shyly.

“And it’s gonna be ours?” Baekhyun asks.  

“For as long as you want it,” Sehun says.

“Forever, then,” Baekhyun says, and Sehun kisses him once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im not so great at fluff writing, but i sure do love it! 
> 
> hopefully u liked this! im having a lot of fun writing it, but obviously i'm always writing for others bc sharing is whats fun abt it! 
> 
> i'm rapidly approaching the end , so it looks like it'll wrap up at 19 chapters, somewhere around 55k or so (i underestimated how much rambling i do lol) 
> 
> thanks, as always, to u for taking the time to read. and a special thank u to those who leave kudos. and A GIANT SPECIAL thank u to ppl who comment. i can't overstate how important u are to my drive to write. i always read the comments behind my hands bc im like, smilin so much lmao. 
> 
> anyway, my notes get longer every week! tragic! 
> 
> im on twitter @wolfsupremacist and if u have questions, u can always ask over there and i promise ill answer kasjkjg im on twitter Too Much


	10. grey, charred

It’s not four moons before the cabin is complete.

All their free time is spent up near the Northern border, up the hill from the rest of the pack. It’s nice, Baekhyun thinks. The perfect place for them. Secluded. Tucked away from all the noise.

Baekhyun mostly watches and keeps Sehun company as he works, not for lack of offering his aid, of course. 

“It’s my gift to you,” Sehun says after Baekhyun tries to assist him the first day. “I’m not going to accept your help with your own gift.”

Baekhyun helps late at night, without Sehun knowing. Once Sehun escorts Baekhyun back home, Baekhyun sews pillows and brushes the furs he’s collected for their bed. It’s small, but it’ll help. He also sets up a little kit of dried healing herbs and flowers. Sehun won’t ever have to venture to the Healer’s House if he doesn’t want, not when Baekhyun’s around.

Sehun starts framing the roof soon after he shows the cabin to Baekhyun, and by the Harvest Moon, the roof is complete, and it really starts to look like a home.

He works shirtless during the early morning, the light of the Father beating down on his skin and leaving beads of sweat in his wake.

“I can smell you,” he grits out, sawing a window through the wall. “You’re being distracting.”

“I can’t help it,” Baekhyun says, chin in his hands. “You’re so nice to look at.”

Sehun rolls his eyes, goes back to his task. His muscles shift and move as he works, and Goddess, Baekhyun could sink his teeth in. _It’d be so good to feel him again,_ Baekhyun thinks, and he's momentarily overwhelmed by his own thoughts. What if Sehun took him right now, took him from behind right here? Marked him while his cock was deep inside, when his knot finally pushed in? If he filled Baekhyun up and kept him stuffed?

“Baekhyun,” Sehun says. “You reek.”

“We haven’t lain together in a half moon,” Baekhyun whines. “And you haven’t knotted me since that first...that first time.”

“I need to finish the cabin,” Sehun says, and now he’s hammering at boards along the inside of the window, finishing it off. “We haven’t had much time.”

And it’s true. Sehun is so focused on finishing the cabin before the winter comes that almost everything else falls by the wayside. Baekhyun doesn’t mind _too_ much. He can be patient. The thought of a winter holed up in their new house, doing nothing but fucking and eating and then fucking again...he doesn’t mind waiting for that.

“There,” Sehun says, standing back and admiring. The bare bones of it complete.

“It’s perfect,” Baekhyun says. “You’ve done such a good job.”

“It still needs work,” Sehun says. “I have to waterproof the roof, build the smoke stack. Lay the floor. Seal the walls and the floorboards with the clay and moss.”

“There’s always work to be done, you silly puppy,” Baekhyun says, grabbing for Sehun. “Come hold me for a moment. Before we have to report.”

“I should get started with the burning,” Sehun says reluctantly.

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun says.

Sehun walks over and takes Baekhyun in his arms. Sometimes, it’s nice to know that he still has Sehun wrapped around his finger even when he’s so thoroughly wrapped around Sehun’s.

 

 

☽

 

 

They’re weaving bandages, just Baekhyun and his mother, while the rest of the Healers are off gathering some necessary flowers from the fields. Baekhyun focuses on his fingers, not getting them all tangled together like he sometimes does. His mother is better than he is, the best, really, but he’s not  _that_ bad.

“How is he doing?” his mother asks, shattering the silence.

“He’s well,” he says.

“How is it coming along?”

“Nearly there,” he says. “Two moons, he says.”

She eyes him carefully, looks at his neck.

“He hasn’t?” she says, eyes back on her work.

“N-no,” Baekhyun says. “Not yet.”

“Alphas,” she says dismissively. “So you’ll...you’ll be leaving soon, then?”

“I imagine so,” Baekhyun says.

There’s silence, and then after a moment, there’s a sniffle. Baekhyun looks up to his mother rubbing at her eyes.

“Mother,” he says.

“Oh, hush,” she says. “A wolf’s allowed to get emotional over her only son leaving the den.”

“It’s not for a while now,” he says, getting up to hug her close to him. “And it’s not like you won’t see me anymore. We work together.”

“You better come visit often,” she says, and she wears a furrowed brow when she stares at him. “You and that boy.”

“You can’t call him _that boy_ ,” Baekhyun says. “He’s my alpha.”  

“I’ll call him whatever I like, he’s taking my baby from me,” she scowls. “You’re still my puppy, Omega, and don’t you forget it.”

 

 

☾

 

 

That evening, Sehun fastens three long wooden slats together in the shape of a triangle, stuffs the center full of kindling, and then stands the column up straight over the fire, letting the inside catch with orange flame. Baekhyun watches with fascination as the kindling chars the wood black, grey ash rising into the air. 

“And then, once they cool,” Sehun says, cutting the fastens so the slats fall open, “the other side.”

“It smells nice,” Baekhyun says. “A bit like Chanyeol.”

Sehun narrows his eyes.

“Every other alpha smells bad,” Baekhyun says quickly. “You’re the only alpha for me.”

He laughs, and he starts tying up another bundle of slats to set ablaze.

 

 

☽

 

 

The charred wood slats get laid over the roof, enough of an overhang that any storms will roll right off of them. Once that’s finished, they get laid over the floor too. It’s as beautiful as it is practical. Sehun polishes the floor on his hands and knees, an oiled rag in his fist. The result is gleaming black wood that Baekhyun could stare at all day, if he’d let himself.

Baekhyun takes to setting up a garden outside with Junmyeon’s help, plenty of the healing herbs and flowers along the path, but some flowers just for show, too. The bell-root, for one. The winter will come soon, but the plants will return year after year.

Baekhyun watches, hands in the dirt, while Sehun molds clay and then places moss in between the logs of the ironwood to insulate and keep the warmth inside. It looks perfectly rustic, and he can practically feel them inside it. The memories they’ll make.

The stone smokestack gets laid once it starts getting cooler in the evenings, before it gets too cold, and Baekhyun sits nearby the fire outside wrapped in furs while Sehun works. It’s his favorite thing now, watching the focus knit Sehun’s brows together and seeing the way he moves so deliberately, so confidently.

They stand wrapped in each other’s arms when it’s finally finished, and Baekhyun can hardly believe the time passed them by so quickly. It felt like a tiny forever. Soon, they’ll be returning here after work to rest and recharge. Coming back to each other. A home. All theirs.

“I’m gonna start building furniture tomorrow,” Sehun says, kissing the top of Baekhyun’s head. “I’ll help you move whatever you want.”

Baekhyun can’t think of too much that he’ll want to bring besides his most prized possessions, tiny memories that can fit in a basket. He can carry that.

Regardless, Baekhyun still whispers out a “thank you,” face buried in Sehun’s chest.

“Do you want to go inside?” Sehun asks.

Baekhyun doesn’t answer, just runs towards the door, pausing before he steps inside to look back at Sehun laughing at him.  

“Aren’t you coming?” Baekhyun asks.

Sehun follows him in, and their footsteps echo when they enter the little house. Baekhyun can imagine it very easily: where the bed will go, where the seats will be placed ‘round the fire, the chest for the spare furs and blankets at the foot of their bed. Cabinets for their clothes, the bathing soaps and oils, the sewing supplies and the books. Where the tapestries will hang on the walls. The curtains that he’ll make for the windows and the doors. A mat to put in front so that they can wipe their feet before coming in. Where a crib might one day rest next to their bed. He can imagine it all so perfectly.

“What do you think?” Sehun asks.

Baekhyun lets his kiss be the answer. His mouth feels tingly and numb by the time he pulls back, Sehun’s hands cupping his jaw.

“I love you,” Baekhyun says.

“I love you more,” Sehun says, and Baekhyun _won’t_ entertain that, not at all.

“You absolutely do not, you dumb puppy,” Baekhyun says, jabbing a finger at Sehun’s pectoral.

“Well, I built you a house,” Sehun says, kissing Baekhyun on the nose. “I think I win this argument.”

“Firstly, it’s not an argument, because we never argue,” Baekhyun says. “Secondly, I win because I’ve actually marked you.”

“Baekhyun,” Sehun says.

“Sehun,” Baekhyun whines.

“Baekhyun,” Sehun says, stepping back and letting go of Baekhyun’s face. “We’ve talked about this.”  

“And I’ve waited,” Baekhyun says, waving his arms. “You’ve given me everything else. You gave me all this. Just give me this one last thing.”

Sehun looks at him with pleading eyes, but Baekhyun wants this more than he wants anything, more than he can remember ever wanting anything.

“There’ll never be any more secrets between us, right?” Sehun asks.

“Secrets?” Baekhyun repeats.

“I never want us to go back to how it was,” Sehun says. “At the beginning. Wondering about what the other knows. Doubting each other.”

He stares at the floor for a minute, before looking back up.

“If I mark you,” Sehun says, “I want you to know that I trust you absolutely. With my whole heart. With everything I am. And that I'll never hold anything back ever again.”

“I know,” Baekhyun says, and he rests his hand on Sehun’s heart. “I trust you. With everything I am. You have to know that by now. You have me. Wholly. Absolutely. Forever.”

He can practically feel the last of Sehun’s resolve break, and when he lowers his mouth to Baekhyun’s neck, Baekhyun can feel his teeth.

“Wait, wait,” Baekhyun says, and he lays down on the floor in front of the cold fireplace. “Here.”

“What are you doing?” Sehun laughs.

“We can break in the house this way,” Baekhyun says. “Our first night here. Shouldn’t it be special? Something we’ll never forget?”

Sehun is weak for sweet things, Baekhyun’s found, so the sweeter he is, the easier he gets what he wants. Sehun lays down beside him, the wooden floor unforgiving beneath them, before he leans over Baekhyun’s body.

“Are you sure?” Sehun asks, suddenly bashful.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything,” Baekhyun says, and he tilts his head to offer his neck.

“Goddess,” Sehun whispers, fingers light over Baekhyun’s skin. “Look at you.”

“You can do more than look,” Baekhyun says, leaning into the touch. “You can taste.”

“Baekhyun,” Sehun says, lips to Baekhyun’s throat. “You really want it?”

“You ask one more time, and I’ll go find Chanyeol,” Baekhyun says.

It garners the desired response: a deep growl from the depths of Sehun’s chest and Sehun’s lips sucking at the thin skin of Baekhyun’s neck.

“Here,” he says, more a statement than a question.

“Yes,” Baekhyun agrees.

He tangles his fingers with Baekhyun’s.

“It will hurt,” Sehun warns.

“I’m a big wolf,” Baekhyun says.

“Not that big,” Sehun smiles.

“I can _take it_ ,” Baekhyun says. “Please, Sehun-ah.”

And Sehun finally listens, finally obeys.

His teeth sink into flesh, and before Baekhyun can formulate a thought, he is frozen. Unable to move. Pain courses through him slow, agonizingly slow, and it’s mind-numbing, it’s all he can think about. It’s a while, maybe the time it takes the sun to set or maybe it’s a whole moon, before it’s over, and his body goes numb too.

And then he feels...pleasure. Lightning hot and bright all over his skin. Fizzling under his muscles. It’s everywhere inside him, shivering and pulsing and brilliant like the stars or the moon or Sehun’s kiss, and then, as quick as it came, it goes.

“Good?” Sehun asks, sitting up. His mouth is wet as he licks blood off his teeth.

“Good,” Baekhyun breathes. “Is it...is it pretty?”

“It’s on you,” Sehun says, and he touches the fresh mark reverently with his fingertips. “Of course it’s pretty.”

“You...you puppy,” Baekhyun says, chest heaving as he surges up to lick into Sehun’s mouth. He breaks away to drag Sehun by the collar back down to the floor with him. “Mate with me.”

“Now?” Sehun asks.

“Now,” Baekhyun says, and he moves a hand to stroke at Sehun’s cock through his clothes.

“There’s no...there’s no furs,” Sehun says.

“Our mating bed was a pile of flowers. You made me come in the river the other day, and I _hate_ it in the river,” Baekhyun says, rolling his eyes. “Mate with me, you big puppy. _Take_ me.”

Sehun kisses him and undresses him tenderly, softly, sweetly. Like it’s the first time all over again. He lays their clothes underneath them, a makeshift bed.

Baekhyun leaks messily, harder than he’s ever been before. It’s been too long, been far too long. Baekhyun hardly wants to go a day without Sehun on him. All over him.

“Been thinking about this,” Sehun whispers, and it’s like Sehun can read his thoughts. “Been thinking about having you here.”

“On the floor?” Baekhyun asks. “Dirty boy.”

“You have no idea,” Sehun says, but Baekhyun thinks he has at least _some_ idea. They’ve been practically starving themselves, and it’s been killing Baekhyun. “I’m gonna break the damn bed once I finally get you in it.”

Baekhyun’s stomach tightens at the image. He’s been waiting for Sehun to be rough with him. Mating is always good, always satisfying right down to his bones, but Baekhyun wants to try everything, wants to try everything _twice._

“Fuck me fr--…,” Baekhyun begins to say before getting shy, thinking back to their first time, and his face floods with red hot shame. He doesn’t know why. Sehun’s always eager, never made fun of him before. It’s silly, he’s being silly.

“Tell me,” Sehun says, and he slips two fingers inside Baekhyun, teasing him with them, a wet noise echoing a little too long for Baekhyun’s liking. It’s _filthy_. “Come on, puppy, tell me what you want. I’ll give it to you.”

“Fuck me from behind,” Baekhyun cries. “Please, Sehun-ah.”

Sehun’s eyes go dark, brutal, and the heat that pours off him, the scent alone, is almost enough to make Baekhyun come untouched.

“Come on,” Sehun says. “Flip over. Show me how you want it.”

He feels hot in the _worst_ way, stifling and dirty, and he fucking loves it, he _loves_ this. He moves onto his stomach, the buckskin underneath him supple and smooth, and he grinds against it for a minute before he tilts his ass up, presents himself to be mounted.

“Can’t wait?” Sehun asks, reaching a hand around Baekhyun’s body to give him a hole to thrust into. “That desperate already?”

“Yes, Alpha,” Baekhyun says. “Need you.”

“Not as much as I need you,” Sehun says, and he’s kissing along Baekhyun’s spine, down, down, down, until he’s licking at Baekhyun’s rim and making him cry out.

Baekhyun leans on one hand, grabs at Sehun’s hair with the other, and groans as Sehun’s tongue licks at his hole. He hums, sending little vibrations all the way up Baekhyun’s body, and it’s good, it’s _way_ too good.

It gets even better when Sehun slides in his fingers, two again, and petting down at the spot that sends Baekhyun flopping down against the floor, legs thrashing, and ends with Baekhyun’s throat used and raw from the high-pitched moans.

“That’s it, puppy,” Sehun says. “Sound so pretty, baby.”

“Please,” Baekhyun says. “Please.”

“Please what?” Sehun asks.

“Fuck me,” Baekhyun says. “Please, fuck me.”

He feels it rather than sees it when Sehun lines up, head wet with Baekhyun’s slick. It’s slow torture, the way Sehun pulls Baekhyun back onto his cock, hands possessive on Baekhyun’s waist, the way it opens him up, so steady and unhurried. He gasps when Sehun’s bottomed out, their bodies flush, because it feels like Sehun is deeper than he’s ever been before.

“Okay?” Sehun asks.

“Yes,” Baekhyun hisses. “Please.”

Sehun fucks him gently, and he pulls noises of content from Baekhyun’s lungs. They’re never going so long without this again, Baekhyun will make sure of that.

The sound of their skin slapping makes Baekhyun leak, and he pulls at the head of his cock reflexively, wetting the shaft before he starts to stroke himself.

“Goddess, you’re tight,” Sehun says before cursing softly. “You clench around me when you touch yourself. Did you know that?”

Baekhyun lets a groan be his answer.

“Dirty puppy,” Sehun says, and a smack lands on Baekhyun’s ass.

“F-fuck,” Baekhyun says, hips stuttering back to meet Sehun’s thrusts.

“Yeah?” Sehun says. “You like that?”

Baekhyun bites his lip, shakes his head _yes._

“ _Filthy_ puppy,” Sehun says.

“Harder,” Baekhyun cries. “Please, harder.”

“Harder?” Sehun confirms, and Baekhyun cries out his answer: an emphatic _yes_.

The next thing Baekhyun feels is Sehun’s palm flat against his scalp, and just as he thinks he’s about to be pushed to the floor, Sehun’s fingers grab at Baekhyun’s hair and he’s been wrenched up, his spine curved as Sehun thrusts into him hard, then harder still.

“Oh,” Baekhyun gasps, barely able to breathe through it. “Oh, Goddess.”

“Like that,” Sehun says, a little breathless now with the effort. “Just like that.”

“You’re--you’re gonna make me come,” Baekhyun says. “Please. Touch me.”

Sehun’s hand moves to his throat, and he holds him up that way, other hand pulling Baekhyun closer and closer to orgasm. Baekhyun comes with Sehun’s name on his lips, staining the clothes underneath them. He shivers through the shocks, weak as he falls to his hands when Sehun lowers him.

“Come on,” he says, pushing back into Sehun. “Come for me. Use me.”

“Are you sure?” Sehun asks.

“Be rough,” Baekhyun says. “Please.”

“Baekhyun,” Sehun moans.

“Come on, puppy,” Baekhyun says, twisting his hips. “It’s been so long.”

And then Sehun’s grip on his hip bones is hard, his pace unyielding, and Baekhyun can hardly breathe, hardly _think._ It’s so much all at once, and it’s only a couple moments before he feels the knot at his rim.

“Knot me,” Baekhyun begs, pushing back on the knot where it teases at him. He whines at the feeling. He wants to be full. It’s been too long, and even once was enough to get him addicted. “Alpha. Breed me.”

Instead, Sehun pulls out, sliding his cock through the slick on Baekhyun’s rim and thrusting against the cleft of Baekhyun’s ass.

“Please,” Baekhyun says weakly, and he’s so strung out, so high on the feeling of his own orgasm that he doesn’t even know what he’s begging for.

Sehun ruts against Baekhyun until he comes, and Baekhyun feels it land on the small of his back. He angles his hips up anyway. He still wants it. He wants it bad.

Sehun cleans them both, wipes them down, and then collapses down to the floor. He pulls Baekhyun into his arms, face to face, and kisses him deeply. Baekhyun sighs into it, and it takes him a couple moments before he returns to himself.

“I missed that,” Sehun says.

“I did too,” Baekhyun says.

“Did...was it okay?” Sehun asks.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun says. “It was good. Better than good.”

Sehun smiles sleepily.

“You’re always better than good,” Sehun says, and he runs a big hand up Baekhyun’s back.

Baekhyun shuts his eyes at the feeling, tries to swallow down what he wants to say.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Sehun asks.

“I’m--,” Baekhyun says. “I don’t know.”

“You can tell me anything,” Sehun says, dotting a kiss to Baekhyun’s lips. His eyes are so wide and bright. “Anything.”

Baekhyun breathes in.

“Why won’t you knot me?” Baekhyun asks. He already knows the answer, can feel it deep in him like heartbreak, but he wants to hear Sehun say it anyway.

Sehun lowers his eyes, looks at Baekhyun’s mouth for a minute.

“It’s early,” Sehun says. “I don’t know if we’re ready yet.”

Baekhyun can hear what he really means to say:  _Not before my Sleep. Not before I come back. I don’t want you to have to raise a child by yourself._

He squeezes his eyes shut, feels the tears sneak out against his will.

“Baekhyunnie,” Sehun says, and Baekhyun’s soft, he knows he is, but he didn’t think he was this soft.

“It’s fine,” Baekhyun says.

“I don’t want to make you sad,” Sehun says, a hand wiping away the stray tears. “I love you. I want to give you everything you want.”

“I know, I know,” Baekhyun says. “I love you.”

“Soon, okay?” Sehun says. “Soon, I promise.”

He must be getting close to his heat because his hormones say _soon isn’t soon enough._ But Baekhyun knows Sehun is right. He’s right.

“You know I want nothing more,” Sehun says. “You can smell me. You know how bad I want it.”

Baekhyun shuffles closer, runs his nose along Sehun’s neck. There’s so much in his scent. Safety. Dedication. Reverence. Admiration. Desire. Love.

“Yeah,” he says. “You do want me bad, huh?”

Sehun huffs out a laugh.

“More than you’ll ever know,” he says, and then he yawns.

“Don’t fall asleep,” Baekhyun says. “If you fall asleep, I’ll fall asleep.”

“I won’t fall asleep,” Sehun says, squeezing Baekhyun in his arms. “I just wanna hold you for a while.”

Baekhyun can’t say he minds.

 

 

☾

 

 

“Goddess, it smells in here.”

Baekhyun’s eyes crack open, and the light streaming in on his naked skin is being blotted out by...Jongdae.

“Get up, you stupid puppies,” he says and he keeps as far away as possible as he stretches to kick at Sehun’s leg. “You gave your parents a terrible fright.”

“It’s--it’s morning,” Baekhyun says, the horror dawning on him. “Goddess. _Goddess,_ Sehun, _wake up_. It’s morning.”

“Hm?” Sehun says sleepily, and in any other case, Baekhyun would be so charmed by Sehun first waking. The sleep blinked out of his eyes. His hair, messy and pulled. His little smile. In any other case, Baekhyun would kiss him silly.

“Wake up,” Baekhyun says frantically. “We fell asleep.”

“Oh,” Sehun says dumbly. “Oh, Goddess.”

He sits up stick straight.

“Oh Goddess is right,” Jongdae says. “My good deed for the moon is done, so I’m off to breakfast. Put your clothes back on, you monsters, and maybe wash the stink off.”

With that, Jongdae leaves them, mumbling something about decency as he exits, leaving them alone.

“My mother is going to _kill_ me,” Baekhyun says, scrambling to stand up and get his clothes from off the floor. “More importantly, she’s going to kill _you._ ”

“I’ll bring her a shadow-cat fur,” Sehun says, throwing on his shirt and smiling. “She likes those, hm?”

She does, and Baekhyun is impressed that Sehun remembered. He leans over and kisses Sehun quickly. 

"Mm," Sehun says, and it gives Baekhyun pause, lost in his thoughts about mating again.

Then he chances a look down.

“You have come on your shirt,” Baekhyun whines.

“We’re going to get destroyed,” Sehun laughs.

“It was worth it,” Baekhyun says. And he means it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> new moon tomorrow morning! perfect time for an update, i thought :-) 
> 
> the technique that sehun uses for waterproofing the roof and floorboards is called yakisugi (more commonly called shou sugi ban in the west) and it is a real life traditional japanese method to preserve wood! i wrote another 600 words abt it initially bc i think it is just the coolest fuckin thing in the universe, but then i was like "no one needs this unnecessary rhapsody about wood burning" so i cut it lol YOU'RE WELCOME. anyway i just thought the concept was so interesting! also the wood is highkey beautiful! 
> 
> thank you for reading all of my nonsense, and of course, a special thank you to everyone who takes the time to lift my spirits with kind words and comments. as a (fake) writer, nothing is better or more rewarding. not to be dramatic, but id die without it. i am tinkerbell. anyway, hope u are all doing well and i hope u have an excellent week! 11 should be up by the week's end or so! u can follow my slow descent into madness at @wolfsupremacist on twitter, if that kind of thing interests you. i have a curious cat linked there in case you want to yell at me anonymously too


	11. cinnamon scarlet

“Here,” Baekhyun says. “You need to take a break.”

Baekhyun holds a basket of apples out to him, fresh from the harvest. Being friends with Junmyeon has its perks.

“I’m almost through,” Sehun says, the bed frame almost complete as Sehun maniacally sands the spindles down.

“Well if you're almost through, then you have time to take a break before supper,” Baekhyun smiles.

Sehun huffs but then sits down on the floor next to Baekhyun, basket in hand. He sets it between the two of them and reaches out to grab one.

“How are you?” Baekhyun asks.

“Good, now that you’re here,” Sehun says, snapping his teeth into the flesh of the fruit and moaning at the taste. “The apples are good this year, thank you.”

“Thank Junmyeon, not me,” Baekhyun says.

“But I can’t thank Junmyeon by doing this,” Sehun says, kneeling up to grab Baekhyun’s face and kiss him hard.

“You better not thank him by doing that,” Baekhyun says, a hand over his heart. “Goodness.”

“ _Goodness_ ,” Sehun mocks, smiling pleasantly.

“You’ll stop that,” Baekhyun says, taking the basket from between the two of them and dragging it back towards himself, “or you don’t get any more snacks from your very pretty mate.”

“Wouldn’t want that,” Sehun says, dragging the basket back towards the center of them, his hand covering Baekhyun’s.

 

 

☽

 

 

Baekhyun weaves rugs, weaves until his fingers are swollen.

“This is ridiculous,” Sehun says, sitting atop their new bed, soft and downy. It’s extremely comfortable, Baekhyun knows from experience. They had begun staying the night in the house, since the bed was complete, but they were still missing other pieces of furniture. Other things to fill up the space.  

And Baekhyun needs the bare-bones house to feel like a home. So he weaves rugs.

“The floors are going to get colder in the winter,” he says, sitting in his new rocking chair, the carved ancient words practically glowing along the headrest and the arms. “And if only one of us wants to prepare, then it will be me.”

“We have Summer’s Heat,” Sehun says, waving a hand.

“Thanks to the Healers,” Baekhyun scoffs.

“Thanks to one Healer, specifically,” Sehun smiles.

Baekhyun rolls his eyes.

“We could also have body heat,” Sehun says, “if you’d take a break to come lay with me.”

“ _Lay_ with you lay with you?” Baekhyun asks.

“Would you like to?” Sehun offers, a bright grin on his face. “ _Lay_ with me lay with me, I mean?”

Baekhyun throws his half finished rug to the side, all but flies onto the bed next to Sehun. Goddess, he’s thankful Sehun made it sturdy.

“Come on then. Fuck me, puppy,” Baekhyun says, pulling Sehun down on top of him. “Make me all nice and warm.”

“As my Omega commands,” he says, lowering the collar of Baekhyun’s shirt to bite at his mate mark, Baekhyun’s giggles steadily filling up the room, unrugged-floor to ceiling.

 

 

☾

 

 

“This is too many,” Sehun says.

“No such thing,” Baekhyun says, fruitlessly shoving at the furs before he attempts to close the lid on the chest with all the strength he can muster. Not even close. Baekhyun sits on it, and the lid lowers a fraction. He needs Sehun. He pats the lid next to him. “Come here, puppy, come sit.”

“No,” Sehun says. “You have to get rid of some of them.”

“I can’t,” Baekhyun whines. “They’re _special._ They’ve got _memories_.”

“I’m not indulging this,” Sehun says.

“Alpha,” Baekhyun whines again. “I _need_ them.”

“ _Baek_ hyun,” Sehun says warningly.

“Se _hun_ ,” Baekhyun says warningly.

Quiet.

Sehun rolls his eyes before walking over and sitting down hard on the chest until the lid snaps closed.

“My hero,” Baekhyun says, arms thrown carelessly around Sehun’s neck before licking a wet line up the side of his face that Sehun immediately wipes off with the back of his hand.

 

 

☽

 

 

When the first snows of winter have fallen, Baekhyun and Sehun are tucked in their home, curled up against one another in bed.

Everything’s exactly where Baekhyun wanted it, and it feels more like a home with every passing moment.

“It’s pretty,” Baekhyun says, staring out the window at where the flakes are trembling down, sticking to the ground and piling on top of one another.

The fire flickers, and Baekhyun has never been warmer. They could save their Summer’s Heat for when things got worse. Baekhyun isn’t worried, not with the way Sehun gives off warmth like it’s his job.

“It is pretty,” Sehun agrees, but when Baekhyun turns to look at Sehun, Sehun is staring straight at him.

Baekhyun gags exaggeratedly, falling forward and clutching his stomach while Sehun laughs.

“Play all you like, puppy,” Sehun says. “I know you’re soft for it.”

Baekhyun inhales to start to argue, but Sehun hugs him close and steals the fighting words right out of his chest.

 

 

☾

 

 

His heat hits him when the second moon of winter is still almost new, the tiny yellow crescent beckoning him in.

Baekhyun always dreads it. Heats are never enjoyable. At least, they _hadn’t_ been. This, though, this would be different.

It’s Sehun who notices.

“You smell like…,” Sehun says, nose against Baekhyun’s neck. “Like sex.”

“Maybe that has something to do with you fucking me last night,” Baekhyun says, smirking.

“Not like that,” Sehun says, and he sniffs up Baekhyun’s throat. “You smell like...like heat, pup.”

“Oh,” Baekhyun says. “Oh, right.”

His heat always hit in winter. With everything going on with the house, he maybe just sort of...put it out of his mind.

“So…,” Sehun says carefully, hands folded in front of him. “I can go stay with my parents. And I’ll make sure to leave food and water for you each morning and night. And if you need anything, you can always howl. I’ll hear you. I’ll never be too far.”

“What are you talking about?” Baekhyun says.

“Well, if you don’t want me to be here for it, I mean,” Sehun says. “I can make myself scarce.”

“Why would I want that?” Baekhyun asks. “Are you dumb, pup?”

Sehun rolls his eyes.

“No,” he says, drawing out the vowel sound. “I just thought I would give you the option, in case you didn’t want to hurt my feelings.”

“Thank you,” Baekhyun says, and he presses a kiss to Sehun’s mate mark. “But I think it’ll be the first pleasant heat of my life because of you.”

Baekhyun smells the joy come off of Sehun in waves, sees his cheeks pink.

“You’re sure?” Sehun asks.

“Never been more sure, Alpha,” Baekhyun says, and he bites at Sehun’s bottom lip until he whimpers.

“We should eat then. And drink. Before it really begins,” he says.

“Okay,” Baekhyun says, and they do, they fill up on bread and meat and water and fruits, and it’s all very practical before Baekhyun feels his body drawn to Sehun’s, and he stands from his chair.

“Sit, pup,” Sehun says. “Eat.”

But Baekhyun moves, pushes Sehun back by the shoulders until he’s far enough away from the table that Baekhyun can throw his legs over him and sit in his lap.

“Better?” Sehun asks, amused.

“Better,” he says, twisting his hips a little. “Feed me, Alpha.”

“Be good,” Sehun says, holding a slice of a clementine to Baekhyun’s mouth for him to take, “and I will.”

 

 

☽

 

 

He doesn’t go himself. Baekhyun sends _Sehun_ down the hill to his childhood home, embarrassingly enough.

“Wormwood tea,” Sehun repeats to himself, like he might forget. “Wormwood tea.”

“Please,” Baekhyun says. “And hurry.”

Sehun returns with the tea, and he’s red in the face. Baekhyun doesn’t know if it’s from the cold or from the embarrassment of having to ask Baekhyun’s mother for it.

He’s starting to feel weak with the heat, so swallowing a hot tea is not ideal, but he chokes it down all the same.

“There,” he says, licking the rest of the stuff from his lips. “Now take me.”

 

 

☾

 

 

“You have to,” Baekhyun says, voice edging on desperation, still worried that Sehun won’t give him what he needs. His body is begging for it, and honestly, it’s been long enough that so is his mind and heart.

“I will,” Sehun says. “I will.”

Baekhyun relaxes into the bed at the thought, knotted and filled. The tea would be a help, but nothing’s ever certain.

“If you...if it happens,” Sehun says, “I’ll be with you the whole time. I mean, if you do get...I would never leave you. I’ll take care of you. Of both of you.”

Baekhyun squirms atop the furs, unable to process such emotions at the moment, and Sehun lifts his body easily, throws the blankets to the side, off the bed.

“You’re dripping,” Sehun says, and he kisses a line down Baekhyun’s body. “You’re gonna make us all messy.”

 _Messy,_ Baekhyun thinks. That’s what he wants. _Wild. Raw._

“Fuck,” Sehun says, and he kisses along Baekhyun’s hips. “You smell...fucking amazing.”

“Do something about it, then,” Baekhyun says. “Be an alpha, puppy.”

Sehun looks up at him.

“I thought omegas were supposed to get all pliant and submissive on heat,” Sehun says. “You just get demanding and mean.”

“I told you once,” Baekhyun says. “I told you I was mean.”

“I’m a silly pup, huh,” Sehun says, fingers light as they trail down Baekhyun’s body. “Always being pushed around by my omega.”

“Punish me, then,” Baekhyun says. “Make me submit.”

Sehun smirks and wraps a big hand around Baekhyun’s cock, slicking the way down.

“ _Goddess_ ,” Baekhyun says. His body feels like it’s already oversensitized, like he’s already been pushed to the edge and dragged back from it, over and over again. He’s _in_ for it.

“Do what feels good,” Sehun says, and before Baekhyun can ask what he means, Sehun’s lips are around Baekhyun’s dick, sucking gently at the head before he swallows Baekhyun down.

“Sehun- _ah_ ,” Baekhyun says, but Sehun doesn’t say anything, just pulls off, gives Baekhyun another couple quick strokes, and then sucks him down again, this time urging Baekhyun forward with his hands on Baekhyun’s hips, silently directing him to thrust into his mouth.

Not at all what Baekhyun expected, but delicious all the same.

“Alpha,” Baekhyun says, groaning with it. He’s already so close. “Alpha, please.”

Sehun sucks his cock eagerly, moaning around him, and the vibrations are what send him over the edge, spilling into Sehun’s mouth as he writhes in their bed.

“Fuck,” Baekhyun says, leaning up on his elbows to see when Sehun’s throat moves as he swallows. Baekhyun thumbs at his bottom lip, cleaning the corner of his mouth where a bit of come drips down.

Sehun opens his mouth, takes Baekhyun’s thumb in, sucks it clean with a wet pop. Baekhyun is still ragingly hard.

“Good?” Sehun asks, and he lifts himself up to kiss Baekhyun on the lips.

“Good,” Baekhyun says, voice shaking. “But I still...I’m still--”

Sehun doesn’t say anything for a moment, just kisses Baekhyun deeply, lush with a twisting tongue, before snaking a hand down to play with the head of Baekhyun’s dick, still slick with spit.

Baekhyun moans into Sehun’s mouth, body quaking mightily.

Sehun finally breaks the kiss and looks down at his hand, eyes affixed to where his hand circles Baekhyun.

“This is going to be fun,” he says, and  _Goddess_ , doesn't Baekhyun know it. 

 

 

☽

 

 

“Come on,” Baekhyun says, and he digs his nails into the flesh of Sehun’s ass. “Harder. _Harder._ ”

“Puppy, pace yourself,” Sehun says, and he’s thrusting away like he’s not at all affected by Baekhyun lying beneath him, covered in his own come, cursing and shivering and spread wide.

“No,” Baekhyun says. “Fuck me like you mean it.”

“You’ve come six times already,” Sehun says. “Be good.”

“ _You_ be good,” Baekhyun says. “Knot me.”

“You’ll get my knot when you’re ready for it,” Sehun teases.

“I _am_ ready,” Baekhyun says, “look at me.”

“You look like you could probably come a few more times,” Sehun says.

“I’m drained with one more,” Baekhyun groans. “Come in me, you dumb pup. Make me come, and then let’s nap.”

“Mm,” Sehun moans. “Nap sounds good.”

“Knot sounds good too, huh,” Baekhyun says enticingly. “Stuffing me full of come.”

“That does sound appealing,” Sehun says, and his hips stutter when Baekhyun starts to rhythmically tighten around him. “Oh.”

“Breed me,” Baekhyun whispers. “Come on, pup. Give it to me. Wouldn’t it feel so good? How many times have I come on your cock now? Three times? Four?”

Sehun moans brokenly.

“Your omega wants a knot,” Baekhyun says, and he scratches his way down Sehun’s back. “Are you gonna give it to him? Are you gonna give me what I want? What I _need_?”

Sehun’s grip on Baekhyun’s hips tightens, and he fucks in harder, faster.

“Yeah,” Sehun says. “I am.”  

When Baekhyun feels it pushing against his rim, he sighs happily and bears down, and it locks in him easily.

“Goddess,” Sehun says. “Are you okay?”

Baekhyun wraps his legs around Sehun’s waist, pulls him down so that they’re chest to chest.

“Never been better, pup,” Baekhyun says. “Now come in me.”

 

 

☾

 

 

Sehun runs fingers along Baekhyun’s hole, and it’s still sloppy with slick and come. He fights back a full-body shudder at the feeling. Sehun’s out until he can get it up again, but Baekhyun still wants to play. And somehow, by the grace of the Goddess, Sehun suggested...this.

“Are you sure?” Baekhyun asks.

“I’ve been curious,” Sehun shrugs.

“For how long?” Baekhyun asks.

“Since we first mated,” Sehun admits. “Probably before, actually. Probably since I presented.”

_Fuck._

He watches as Sehun takes freshly wet fingers and lowers them, slips his hand between his legs and touches.

“Can I?” Baekhyun asks. “If...if you don’t mind?”

Sehun splits his legs, and the strength of his scent hits Baekhyun like a hand to the back of the head.

“Have you ever…”

“No,” Sehun says. “So just...be gentle and go slow.”

He wonders how he got so lucky. He circles his finger around the slick on Sehun’s rim, watches as his hole tenses. Baekhyun reaches between his own legs, coats his fingers. Goddess, it’s filthy, but fuck if he doesn’t love every second of it.

“Make it wet,” Sehun says. “Really wet.”

Baekhyun pushes the tip of a finger inside and he’s met with a sharp intake of breath, a quick rise in Sehun’s chest.

“Come on, Alpha,” Baekhyun says. “Relax.”

He pushes in farther when Sehun obeys his command, and then he curls his finger up.

“Oh,” Sehun says. “Fuck.”

“Yeah?”

“Y-yeah,” he says, and as Baekhyun continues to explore, his whole body tenses when Baekhyun rubs his finger in a circle. Sehun’s abdomen clenches. “Oh. There. Please, there. Omega, please.”

It’s nice hearing him beg.

 

 

☽

 

 

It’s refreshing, Baekhyun thinks, standing at the open door and watching as the snow falls to the soil, glittering in the air. It had gotten a bit warmer, weather mirroring his heat, most of the snow that had accumulated melting and leaving the ground sloppy with mud. But new snows fall, shimmering and swirling in the wind, crystal. So pretty. It was already starting to stick. They might be snowed in for days.

Strong arms circle his waist.

“You’re letting all the cold air in,” Sehun says, nose along Baekhyun’s neck.

“I’m hot, I’m sorry,” Baekhyun says, altogether not very sorry about it.

He feels Sehun smirk against his skin before he hears him say, “You’re not sorry.”

“Maybe a bit,” Baekhyun says, tilting his neck up so Sehun gets a good look at the mark there.

" _Tease,_ ” Sehun says before he starts to mouth at it.

“It’s only teasing if I don’t let you have it,” Baekhyun says. “And I always let you have it.”

“Sometimes you make me take it,” Sehun says, and he licks a stripe up the slope of Baekhyun’s neck.

“You like that,” Baekhyun says. “You like taking it.”

“You’re right. I do,” Sehun says.

“Mm,” Baekhyun hums, and he grinds against the growing hardness he can feel at his back.

“Are we going to stand here all day?” Sehun asks, voice gruff already.

“My big alpha can’t handle a little cold?” Baekhyun teases. “Is he just a little puppy? Is he just a tiny little baby?”

Baekhyun barely finishes the thought before he’s being hauled off in a fit of giggles to break the last dredges of his heat, the door shut tight behind them.

 

 

☾

 

 

Their breathing comes back to normal slow, the rise and fall of their chests uneven as they hold each other in front of the fire, wrapped in their furs.

“That was the best time yet,” Baekhyun says, smiling.

“You know I like it when you pull my hair,” Sehun says.

“Because you’re dirty,” Baekhyun says.

“Only for you, puppy,” Sehun says.

“Really?” Baekhyun says, and he turns to lay facing Sehun, propping himself up and leaning on his elbow. “You never...with anyone else?”

“Never,” Sehun says. “Well, I...messed around a little.”

“Ooh,” Baekhyun says and he snuggles his way into Sehun’s bare chest. “Tell me everything.”

“There isn’t much to tell,” Sehun says. “Besides, I don’t want you to be jealous by time the winter ends. Last thing we need is you trying to quarrel with someone.”

“I won’t quarrel!” Baekhyun says. “I’m _interested_! I’m _curious_!”

“No, it’s embarrassing,” Sehun says.

“Was it when you were real young?” Baekhyun asks.

“Not _that_ young,” Sehun says.

“How far did you get?” Baekhyun asks, delighted.

“Not very far,” Sehun says, and when Baekhyun looks up, his face is bright red like the ripest of the berries. “Why, do you want a demonstration?”

“Mm,” Baekhyun hums, before reaching down to play with Sehun’s soft cock. “You might need another couple minutes.”

“Damn,” Sehun says, pulling Baekhyun even closer to him. “What about you, hm? With anyone else?”

“A bit,” Baekhyun says.

“More than me probably,” Sehun says.

And Baekhyun could argue because he knows otherwise, only having kissed a couple people besides Sehun, but he keeps quiet and enjoys the warmth.

They lay wrapped in each other’s arms for longer than Baekhyun can keep track of. It’s good, he thinks, just lying there. There’s no better feeling than someone’s flesh against your own. He feels himself on the edge of sleep, just about to fall, when Sehun’s voice stirs him.

“I was thinking the other day,” Sehun says, “about that time when we were pups. When you yelled at supper you didn’t wanna get mated? Do you remember that?”

Baekhyun groans.

“My mother would never let me forget,” Baekhyun says. “I wish I learned how to keep my mouth shut.”

“I always liked that about you,” Sehun says, and he brushes a thumb against Baekhyun’s lips. “You were never afraid to say how you felt. And, you know, sometimes they have to teach omegas to stick up for themselves, that they don’t have to roll over for anyone. Not you, though. They never had to teach you. You could always scare wolves off with a look.”

“It’s a wonder you liked me,” Baekhyun says.

“It’s a wonder I _have_ you,” Sehun says.

“Please,” Baekhyun says. “If anyone’s lucky, it’s me.”

He pinches Sehun’s cheeks as he smiles.

“My _love_ ,” Baekhyun teases.

Sehun giggles, and it’s Baekhyun’s favorite sound, the music of their winter spent together. He thinks he would lay here for the rest of his suns and moons if he could. Little spaces carved out between the snows. Just room enough for two.

“When did it change?” Sehun asks after a while.

“When did what change?” Baekhyun asks.

“When did you decide you wanted to get mated?” Sehun asks quietly.

“Truthfully? When I Slept,” Baekhyun says. “Before, I...I didn’t want any of this. I was so scared to Sleep, so scared of what I might see, but when I saw you there. Fuck. When I realized that I was always trying to pretend that I didn’t like you, pretending that I didn’t notice you as much as I did...you’re quiet, you know? You’re easy for a lot of people to miss. I think you like it that way. But you always...you always made yourself known to me. You always made me feel like I was someone who meant something.”

“You don’t mean something,” Sehun says, brushing Baekhyun’s hair back and tucking it behind his ear. “You mean everything.”

“Stop,” Baekhyun says, squirming with the affection. “I can’t take it.”

“You can and you will,” Sehun says before pinching Baekhyun’s cheek, “ _my love_.”

 

 

☽

 

 

His heat finally breaks, and they spend the next few days recovering. They bathe in the icy river, and to Baekhyun, it feels like nothing, his body still churning out warmth like a fireplace. But when Sehun leaves the water, his teeth chatter.

“Come on, puppy,” Baekhyun says, wrapping the furs back around Sehun's body, “let’s get you all nice and warm again.”

They walk back, feet pushing slow through the snow.

“You need to eat,” Baekhyun says. “Get some energy back.”

“I need sleep,” Sehun says. “And so do you. We can eat in the morning.”

And so when they get back to the cabin, they curl up in bed, Baekhyun laid flat on his back, Sehun’s head resting on him. Clean furs, fresh from the chest.

“It’s nice, you know,” Sehun says sleepily.

“What?” Baekhyun asks, scrubbing the pads of his fingers against Sehun’s scalp.

“We’ll always have a little summer right in the middle of winter,” he says, a tired smile on his face.

 

 

☾

 

 

“Goddess,” Sehun says, nose buried in Sehun’s hair. “You smell so different off your heat.”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes. It’s been a couple days, and for the first two, they didn’t touch much. There’s something to be said for overload.

“Of course, dumb pup,” Baekhyun says, and he reaches up to flick Sehun’s ear for good measure.

“You smell nice,” Sehun says pleasantly. “Very...subtle.”

“When you rut, you’re gonna stink up the whole house,” Baekhyun says. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“I never said it was bad,” Sehun says. “You didn’t hear me complaining.”

“No, I certainly didn’t,” Baekhyun says smugly.

“Okay, okay,” Sehun says. “I’ll never bring up how you smell again. Happy?”

“Happy,” Baekhyun says, even though he knows Sehun will break his own rule the next time Baekhyun smells even the slightest bit anxious.

 

 

☽

 

 

Sehun walks in late, knocking the bottom of his boots free of snow against the door frame, and Baekhyun has half a mind to give him a _piece_ of his aforementioned mind.

“Hi,” Sehun says sheepishly, his cheeks flushed red. “Sorry I’m late.”

“The sun set a while ago,” Baekhyun says coldly, arms folded.

“I know,” Sehun says.

“Guess someone doesn’t want to mate with me,” Baekhyun says, nose in the air.

“Someone very much does. It’s been too long,” Sehun says, folding his coat and hanging it over a chair before he’s crossing the room and dragging Baekhyun into his arms, lifting him up easily.  “Not since your heat.”

“Hey!” Baekhyun says. “Put me down, you giant!”

“No,” Sehun says. “I’m sorry, pup. I know you wanted me prompt, but I had to stop to get something.”

“Oh yeah?” Baekhyun says, and he folds his arms around Sehun’s neck because he feels the ice chipping off his heart. “And what was so important that you had to delay our evening?”

Sehun sets Baekhyun down on the bed, letting his body bounce, before walking back over to his coat.

“You’re _leaving_?” Baekhyun asks incredulously.

“No, puppy,” Sehun smiles, and he reaches into his coat pocket, pulling out a little vial of swirled red-brown sticks and a bigger bottle, shining and gold. “I know you said your mother used to make you cinnamon honey tea in the winters, so I went and stole some stuff from the kitchens since no one was there anyway.”

“You _stole_ it?” Baekhyun asks.

“ _Borrowed_ ,” Sehun says, moving over to the kettle near the fireplace, “indefinitely.”

Baekhyun watches as Sehun fills the kettle with water, sets it over the fireplace, and then moves back to the bed. He’s overwhelmed by it, really. How Sehun can remember such a small thing, something that would seem inconsequential to anyone else. How he can wait until Baekhyun least expects it and show him just how beautiful his soul really is.

“Hey,” Sehun says, wiping at Baekhyun’s face. “I’ll be on time next time. I’ll take it back if you want. I’m sorry, don’t cry.”

“Don’t be _sorry,_ ” Baekhyun cries. “You idiot puppy.”

Sehun laughs, and it makes Baekhyun choke out a laugh too.

“Happy?” Sehun asks, swiping at a tear with his thumb.

“Happy,” Baekhyun says. “Thank you. You--you’re so sweet.”

“Ah,” Sehun says, waving it away. “I’ve just got sticky fingers.”

They lay back in bed with mugs full of cinnamon honey tea, and it tastes so much like home that Baekhyun can’t hardly remember what it was like, not being this deeply in love.

 

 

☾

 

 

They walk in the mornings, hand in hand, along the border at the North.

Every day when they pass by, Baekhyun gets to his knees and shovels away the snow from the patch of the sleeping violets with his hands.

“They’ll come back,” Sehun says. “They came back last spring with no trouble.”

“You don’t  _know_ they’ll come back,” Baekhyun says, balling up some of the snow in his hands and chucking it in the direction of Sehun’s head.

“I do,” Sehun says, dodging out of the way effortlessly. “Especially because you insist on keeping the snow off them.”

“If I don’t protect them, no one will!” Baekhyun says.

“Okay,” Sehun says, kneeling next to Baekhyun in the snow. “Fine.”

And he kneels down to help shovel the snow away from the violets too, making a little wall around them. It makes Baekhyun smile, seeing the diligence in Sehun’s work even if it’s obvious that he thinks Baekhyun is being silly.

“They’re special,” Baekhyun explains. “Th--they remind me of you.”

_Of when you first scented me. Of when you first put your hands on me. Of when you first took me as your own._

“Lucky,” Sehun says. “They remind me of you too.”

Baekhyun looks at him.

“Oh yeah?” Baekhyun says.

“How could they not?” Sehun asks. “They make me think of your heat.”

He grins, and Baekhyun grabs a handful of snow to shove down the back of his coat, making him jump to his feet to shake it out before it soaks through his clothes.

 

 

☽

 

 

When the ground is no longer frozen, no longer covered in a thick blanket of snow, the wolves start to come out of their huts. In theory.

“I don’t wanna,” Baekhyun says petulantly.

“We have to go out sometime, spring’s coming,” Sehun says. “Besides, we’re all out of food.”

“Who needs food?” Baekhyun says. His skin is against Sehun’s skin, so he can’t truly know hunger.

“You will, after I fuck you silly later,” Sehun smiles.

“You’re dirty,” Baekhyun says, kissing Sehun on the nose. “Dirty boy.”

“Yes, I am,” Sehun says. “Come on, let’s go see what the guys are up to.”

“I don’t _care_ what the guys are up to,” Baekhyun whines.

“Sure you do,” Sehun says. “Remember? All your friends?”

“I never liked them all that much,” Baekhyun says.

“You’re being a silly pup,” Sehun says.

And maybe he is. But once winter passes, the spring is upon them. And Baekhyun feels like he hasn’t cherished this time enough, hasn’t soaked in it enough to seep into his skin. One winter isn’t enough.

“Later,” Baekhyun says, and he tugs Sehun back into bed. “Please? Later.”

Sehun sighs, and kisses Baekhyun on the head.

“Later,” he says.

 

 

☾

 

 

When they finally do venture out of the cabin, the air smells fresh with the spring: cool, but not cold. Baekhyun doesn’t even have to wear a fur, but he does wear his strongest boots because the earth is still wet beneath their feet when they trudge their way down the hill.

“God, you two are disgusting. You smell so much alike,” Chanyeol grins before hugging Baekhyun close. “Good to see you survived, haven’t seen much of you for the past couple moons.”

“Well, I’ve been busy,” Baekhyun says, nose in the air.

“Busy hanging off a knot, you mean,” Jongin says, and he thumps Baekhyun on the chest and Baekhyun holds back the urge to tackle him to the ground. He’s not a puppy anymore. He can’t act on all his urges anymore.

“You jealous?” Baekhyun asks. “Where’s Kyungsoo anyway, hm?”

Jongin’s cheeks go pink, and Baekhyun sees the pink of his mate mark sneak out above his collar as he shrugs.

“Went to see his parents,” he says shyly. “We haven’t seen them since…”

“Since you woke from your Sleep,” Sehun says knowingly. “You didn’t wait long, did you?”

“Hush,” Jongin says. “You know how Soo is.”

“And how am I?”

They all turn to see Kyungsoo standing before them looking less than impressed, dark red mate mark matching Jongin’s perfectly.

“Excited that you could finally mate,” Sehun smirks.

“Some of us did it traditionally,” Kyungsoo says.

And Baekhyun wants to reach out to smack him because he doesn’t understand, doesn’t know their circumstances, but Sehun rolls his eyes good-naturedly, and ruffles Kyungsoo’s hair.

“Hey!” Kyungsoo says. “Quit it.”

“What, is your alpha going to stop me?” Sehun teases. And then he takes off running towards the hall, Kyungsoo chasing him down and swinging his fists wildly.

“Idiot,” Baekhyun says, but he smiles anyway, and the group of them follow behind.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that's a wrap on winter. hope u enjoyed nearly 5k of straight smut and fluff lol 
> 
> an update: i'm finally finished writing! 19 chapters + a short epilogue, final word count should be around 58k. 
> 
> another update: i've started working on a new sebaek (ghost au), and i also have a chansoo (frat au) and chanbaek (angel au) in the works. be sure to let me know, either in the comments or at my twitter (@wolfsupremacist) or on my curiouscat, what you'd prefer to read next. i know some folks are particular abt shipping, but im always sort of slutty abt it lmao 
> 
> anyway, thanks for reading, have a good week!!!!


	12. the chartreuse dance

Baekhyun wakes on the morning of the spring run, unable to shake his amazement at how much had changed in just one year, just twelve moons.

They walk hand in hand to the meeting place, shoeless feet dirty in the soil. Baekhyun fights off nerves that he can’t find the source of.

“You okay?” Sehun asks, eyes forward but nose twitching.

“I’m okay,” Baekhyun says, and he squeezes Sehun’s hand in reassurance.

“You gonna lead me tonight?” Sehun asks.

“You want me to?” Baekhyun smiles.

“You know I like following wherever you lead,” Sehun says, and Baekhyun’s heart thumps wildly in his chest. “What are you nervous about?”

“I don’t know,” Baekhyun says. “I’m not sure.”

Sehun moves in front of him, kneels before him so Baekhyun has to stop short unless he wants to run Sehun over.

“What are you doing?” Baekhyun asks.

“Come on,” Sehun says, and his arms move out to the side. “Jump on.”

“You’re gonna carry me?” Baekhyun asks. 

“Yeah, you’ll get to see what it’s like being tall for a change,” Sehun asks, sending a pretty smile over his shoulder.

Baekhyun smacks him on the back of the head for it.

“Ow.”

“Are you sure, though?” Baekhyun asks, worrying his lip between his teeth.

“You weigh nothing,” Sehun says. “And it’s hardly torture, carrying you.”

Baekhyun can see right through Sehun, but he’s thankful for him, so, _so_ thankful for him, so instead of saying anything more, he just climbs on Sehun’s back and lets himself be hauled to the meeting place, Sehun holding him up and draining him of his anxiety.

He drapes his arms across Sehun’s chest and kisses his cheek.

“What’s that for?” Sehun asks, smiling.

“Can’t a wolf just show some affection?” Baekhyun asks. “Goddess.”

“Show all the affection you like,” Sehun says. “I thrive on it.”

Baekhyun always feels safe, secure when he’s with Sehun, and this is no different. By the time Sehun is walking up to the congregation, setting him down gently, Baekhyun’s nerves are settled, and there’s nothing left in him but the excitement. He loves the run. Will love it even more now, now that he’s got someone to lead and someone to follow too.

When they strip in the moonlight, Baekhyun’s eyes run over Sehun’s body shameless now. So different than before.

“Dirty pup,” Sehun whispers, so low that Baekhyun can barely hear him. Baekhyun smirks, shoving an elbow into Sehun’s side.

When the wolves howl, the bright yellow-white of the joyful spring moon high above them, Sehun sends him a smirk before he shifts. It never fails to take Baekhyun’s breath away, the sight of Sehun’s wolf. He’s deceptively gentle when he rubs his muzzle into Baekhyun’s face, but Baekhyun knows how dangerous he can be. How strong he is.  

Sehun barks, a soft little thing, and it immediately draws Baekhyun in.

Baekhyun shifts, and it’s been a while, been a long winter in his human skin. It was the best winter of his life, by far, but he would be kidding himself if he said that he didn’t miss this intensely.

When it begins, all is quiet and still. And then suddenly, all Baekhyun hears is the huff of breath and the pounding of paws against the forest floor. So he runs.

He and Sehun stick close together, edging each other out every once in a while, Baekhyun taking the lead some moments, and then Sehun taking over the next. Baekhyun yips, snaps his jaws at Sehun’s tail and listens to Sehun’s answering yips. It’s fun, in a childish, indulgent way and it feels good, feels wonderful to be completely without burden, at least for a little while.

They round the mountain, and all heads whip to the summit to look for the lights.

What he sees shocks the breath out of him.

The dance is strong, stronger than Baekhyun has ever seen it in his life.

The night is bright and alive with the yellows and greens, streaming up into the sky and around the mountain. Like a beacon of hope. This year, the blessing is hope, joy, love. Not just survival, but _prosperity_. Growth. The most hopeful it’s ever been. There’s an eruption of howling, of yipping: happy, ecstatic noises pouring from the pack like water off a fall. His heart is so full, so incredibly full.

Baekhyun runs, runs fast, but Sehun is faster, so when the pack breaks for the night, he ends up chasing Sehun and before he knows it, they’re spiraling through the wood towards the south, towards the fields. It’s electric, watching Sehun dodge and weave his way through, expert in his knowledge of the layout. Baekhyun howls happily, unable to keep the sound locked in his chest, and Sehun calls back his answer.

When Sehun is finally slowing, they come upon a clearing, the meadow open, covered in the Moon Lady’s peonies, bathed in the white light of the moon. It almost looks like the field is covered in snow with how dense the flowers are.

Sehun shifts back, breathless and laughing, and he moves to hold Baekhyun’s head in his hands, petting over the crown of his head.

“Shift,” he says, smiling.

When Baekhyun shifts, his eyes well with tears.

“Happy?” Sehun asks, a thumb on Baekhyun’s cheek.

Baekhyun knows that if he speaks, he’ll sob, so he nods.

“A good spring. A happy spring,” Sehun says. And his intent hangs in the air. _Don’t worry about me. I’ll come back._

Baekhyun jumps, wrapping arms and legs around Sehun in a flash of movement, and Sehun stumbles back a little, a laugh shocked out of him, before he reacts and grabs him back, holding Baekhyun up by the backs of his thighs.

“I like seeing you so happy, pup,” he says, pressing a kiss to Baekhyun’s mark.

Baekhyun grabs Sehun by the back of the neck, pulls him into a kiss. It’s tremulous, Baekhyun shaking with need and relief simultaneously. Sehun’s calm seeps into him, pulls him back into the easy joy of the night.

They kiss deeply, indulgently, and Baekhyun knows he’s had his fill of Sehun over the winter, but it’s still not enough. No matter how many times, he’ll always want more.

“After,” Sehun says, breaking the kiss. “After. I want to be Tied. I want someone to Tie us.”

It hits Baekhyun hard, like a blow to the stomach. Shock. Delight.

“Tied?” Baekhyun asks.

“I know a lot of people think it’s silly, since the mark means more,” Sehun says, and he lowers Baekhyun’s legs slowly until his feet are on the ground. “But I want to do it anyway.”

Baekhyun can imagine it clearly in his head. Barefoot in the river. Crowns of flowers on their heads. The ropes wrapped across their hands. The binding. The birds singing. The smell of summer all around them.

“Really?” Baekhyun asks, and the tears spring back to his eyes fast.

“It doesn’t have to be big,” Sehun says. He puts his hands on Baekhyun’s waist, thumb brushing the thin skin of Baekhyun’s hips slowly. “It can just be us, if you want. Something small. Just for us.”

“Jongdae should be there,” Baekhyun says. “And Junmyeon.”

“Jongdae and Junmyeon,” Sehun smiles.

“I love you,” Baekhyun says. “More than you could ever know.”

“I love you,” Sehun echoes.

They lay in the peonies, the Lady watching from above. And when they come together, when they call each other’s names into the light and darkness of the night, Baekhyun feels whole. Feels complete. Feels _tied_.

 

 

☽

 

 

Jongdae shoots him a funny look over breakfast.

“What?” Baekhyun asks.

“Nothing,” Jongdae says, and he goes back to his food, all innocent and naive. Baekhyun doesn’t know why he puts up with it.

He grabs Jongdae by the scruff of the neck.

“Goddess, you went and got testy over the winter, haven’t you?” Jongdae smiles.

“Tell me,” Baekhyun says.

“You smell different,” Jongdae says. “That’s all.”

“Different how?” Baekhyun asks, hand still tight on the back of Jongdae’s neck.

“Let go,” Jongdae laughs. “You’re a menace.”

“Tell me then,” Baekhyun says.

“You just smell...relaxed,” Jongdae says. “Like you’re ready.”

Then Baekhyun is the one to give Jongdae a funny look.

“Ready for what?”

Jongdae shrugs.

“I don’t know. Anything, I guess,” he says.

 

 

☾

 

 

If Baekhyun wasn’t Baekhyun, he would have let the conversation from breakfast go. But Baekhyun is Baekhyun, can’t be anything _besides_ Baekhyun, so when he heads up north after his day with the Healers, it’s all he’s thinking about.

Sehun’s face lights up like crazy when he sees Baekhyun, and there’s sweat on his brow. He’s devastatingly handsome, and it’s been a while since they’ve spent the day apart, which is why Baekhyun doesn’t feel _too_ guilty about the way his stomach still seizes up with arousal seeing him.  

Sehun jogs over to him, kisses him square on the lips in front of the rest of the hunters.

“Gross,” Jongin says, nose twitching as the group of them pass Sehun and Baekhyun by.

“He’s just jealous,” Sehun whispers, smiling. “I missed you, puppy.”

“Hush now,” Baekhyun says. “It’s only been half a day.”

“Ah,” Sehun says knowingly. “I recognize that face. You missed me too.”

And, Goddess help him, he had. Sehun takes Baekhyun’s hand in his as they walk down the beaten path.

“Did you want to wash?” Baekhyun asks. “Before supper?”

“Just for a moment,” Sehun says before offering, “I can go by myself if you’d like. I’ll be quick about it.”

“I’ll come,” Baekhyun says. “I might bathe later, though. If that’s okay with you.”

“Right now, I just want to get the sweat off,” Sehun says, rubbing the back of his neck. “Later sounds good. I’ll join you.”

He tightens his hand around Baekhyun’s, and when Baekhyun looks, he’s wiggling his eyebrows in the goofy way he does.

“Oh, but I _hate_ it in the river,” Baekhyun whines. “Can’t we wait until we’re in bed? Where it’s nice and warm? And there are furs?”

“You’re bluffing,” Sehun says. “You always come hard in the river.”

“You make me come hard everywhere,” Baekhyun says. “I prefer bed.”

“Fine, fine,” Sehun says. “Bed.”

But he still wears a mischievous grin on his face, and Baekhyun wants to slap him.

“You try anything, and you owe me a massage,” Baekhyun says threateningly.

“The horror,” Sehun gasps. “Being forced to rub my omega down with scented oils as he writhes beneath me and begs for my knot. Oh, Goddess, the trials you put me through. What have I done to deserve such a fate?”

Baekhyun wrenches his hand out of Sehun’s.

“You don’t deserve me at all,” Baekhyun says, and he quite enjoys the look of surprise on Sehun’s face.

He runs off to the river, laughing, Sehun hot on his heels.

 

 

☽

 

 

Sehun is washing his face, wading in the river up to his waist. He walks in a little deeper, up to his chest, and then dives under. When he comes back to the surface, he scrubs through his hair, leaving it all stuck up and spiked.

“Do I...do I smell different to you?” Baekhyun asks, fingers knotting together.

Sehun looks over to where Baekhyun is sat on the bank, knees pulled to his chest.

“What?” Sehun asks.

“Do I smell different?” Baekhyun asks again.

“I don’t know,” Sehun asks. “I don’t think so. I mean, I haven’t gotten a good smell of you yet today.”

And then he’s walking back out of the river, skin dripping wet and glistening, and Baekhyun’s mouth goes dry.

Sehun smirks.

“You smell exactly how I remember,” Sehun says.

“Shut up,” Baekhyun says. “Be serious.”

Wet hands hold his neck, and Baekhyun shivers a bit with the cold. Sehun noses along his throat, sniffs him.

“You smell normal,” Sehun says. “Maybe hornier than usual.”

“I said _shut up_ ,” Baekhyun says, slapping Sehun on the shoulder. Sehun smiles, presses himself in a long line against Baekhyun. “Stop, oh _Goddess,_ you’re getting me all wet.”

“You’re going to be saying that all night long,” Sehun says.

“I _hate_ you,” Baekhyun says.

Sehun laughs, dries himself off, and dresses. They walk to the hall, and Baekhyun looks up at the sky, the night setting over them.

“Why do you ask?” Sehun asks.

“I don’t know,” Baekhyun says. “Jongdae mentioned it at breakfast. I just...I guess I just wanted to know what he meant.”

“That’s strange,” Sehun says. “You’d think that if anyone noticed, it would be me.”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun agrees.

They eat mostly in silence, their thighs pressed together. It’s a comforting weight, but Baekhyun’s mind reels.

“If I start smelling different, you’ll tell me, right?” Baekhyun says.

“Yeah,” Sehun says. “I’ll tell you.”

Baekhyun breathes out, shaky.

“Hey,” Sehun says, grabbing Baekhyun’s hand across the table. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun lies. “I’m okay.”

“I’ll scent you later,” Sehun says. “A lot. As much as you want.”

Even hearing that helps, puts a nice weight in Baekhyun’s stomach that holds him down.

“Okay,” Baekhyun says. “With your...with your hands in my hair, please.”

“My hands wherever you want them,” Sehun says. “You know I’ll give you whatever you need, Omega.”

 

 

☾

 

 

Seven suns later, he’s in the forest with his mother, soil wedged under her fingernails.

“Goddess, help me,” she keeps repeating. It’s her least favorite task, digging up the Sweet Sleep weeds.

“Here,” he offers. “I can try.”

They switch places, and his hands replace hers around the roots of the plant.

“Get it out in one pull,” she says. “Don’t break the roots.”

He gingerly works his fingers around the base of the plant, dirt under his nails now too as he scrapes and shakes away the earth that still clings to it.

“Good,” she says, leaning over his shoulder. She sniffs loudly before rearing back. “Swiftly, now.”

He counts down in his head. No hesitation. One. Two. Three. He yanks his hands out, and the plant comes cleanly. His mother ducks her head in, running her fingers along the roots. Clean. Unbroken.

“Good job, pup,” she says, patting him on the head. “That’s your job from now on.”

Baekhyun preens at it. He’s seen tons of Healers spill the Sleep into the soil, the roots broken and weeping silver. It’s certainly not an easy task, not with the way the Sweet Sleep’s roots twist and gnarl.

She offers him a bucket, and he deposits the plant into it, realizing slowly that the plant he just pulled from the Fertile Mother will be the very thing that walks Sehun to his Sleep.

He bites his tongue.

They walk back to the House, the bucket in his mother’s hands. It’s quiet, strangely tense the way not many walks are with his mother. They’re close, close enough that things are never awkward between them. It sets Baekhyun on edge, of course, and he’s sure she can smell it by the way she wrinkles her nose as they walk in and sit down, the bucket plunked down on the table between them.

“Baekhyun,” she says conversationally. “Would you do me a favor?”

“Of course,” he says. “Anything.”

She stands from her seat and goes to the cabinet, fetches the teapot and a mug, and then walks to the stove. She sets the kettle on and while it heats, she grabs a couple different pinches of dried herbs and flowers from the glass jars. When the kettle screams, she pours a bit into the teapot, swirling it around before dumping it. Then, she puts the herbs and flowers into the pot, and then pours the water from the kettle in, stirring gently.

“What do you need from me?” Baekhyun asks carefully.

“I want you to drink this,” she gestures. “When it’s ready.”

“What is it?” Baekhyun says, even if he has a vague idea based on the things she reached for. The vague idea makes him vaguely sick at the thought.

She smiles, sniffs the air.

“Has he said anything to you?” she asks. “About the way you smell?”

Baekhyun’s stomach turns.

“He doesn’t smell anything on me,” he says. “I’ve asked.”

She makes a curious sound.

“You smell like milk, child,” she says, and his stomach clenches tight. “I just want to see if--if it’s just a falsity.”

He swallows around the nerves that spring forward.

“Have you had any symptoms?” she asks.

“No,” he says, shaking his head. “No, nothing like that.”

“And your last heat?” she asks.

He shifts uncomfortably in his seat and doesn’t meet her eyes.

“Please,” she says, rolling her eyes. “I’ve been healing since my Sleep. I’ve heard it all before.”

“It was...it was fine. Normal,” he says. “We...well, you know.”

“So it’s a possibility, then,” she clarifies. “Even with the tea.”

“Y-yeah,” he says. “I suppose it is.”

“No sickness?” she asks. “It doesn’t look as if you’ve swollen at all. You're just as skinny as ever.”

“Mother,” he chastises.

“I always tried to fatten you up a little,” she smiles. “Never worked.”

“ _Mother_ ,” he groans.

“Fine, fine,” she says, raising her hands. “Just a few more questions then.”

He nods, eyeing the teapot as steam rises from the spout.

“Are you prepared for a puppy?” she asks. “If the Lady has blessed you?”

“Not really,” Baekhyun says truthfully.

“Good answer,” she says. “Only fools think they’re prepared. Raising a pup is the greatest joy, but it’s also a great sacrifice. It’s about knowing that you’re responsible for someone else and treating that responsibility with respect and honor. But it’s also about knowing how to ask for help.”

“I know,” he says. “If...if I am, then I’d need all the help I could get. Especially with his Sleep coming.”

She eyes him carefully.

“Why are you so nervous for it?” she asks. “Every time it’s brought up, you cower to it.”

“It’s--,” he starts, but he doesn’t know how to finish.

“Child,” she says. “I’m not just the Head Healer. I’m also your mother.”

“I know,” he says. “I know.”

“So confide in me,” she says. “Let me ease your mind.”

“In my Sleep, I saw...I saw him fall,” Baekhyun says, and he looks to her with full eyes. “He fell to his Sleep.”

“Oh, child,” she says, and she stands, crossing to him. She pulls him over so that his head rests against her chest as she hugs him, and for a brief moment, the fear overwhelms him, escapes him, and he lets tears slip from his eyes. “He will not fall.”

“I know,” he says, sniffing, reaching up to wipe at his face. “I know he won’t.”

“You will know pain in your life,” she says sagely. “We all must. But you will not know _this_ pain. This will not come to pass.”

“I know,” Baekhyun says, and he tries to believe it. Tries to remember the Moon Lady’s blessing. The lights on the mountain. Green and gold, dancing fiercely. Proudly. Nothing bad will happen. Sehun will wake.

“You’re a strong wolf,” she says. “He’s a strong wolf too. Believe him. Trust him.”

“I will,” Baekhyun says. “I do.”

“I know you worry,” his mother says. “I worry too. But the worry does us no good. Our lives are in Her hands. The most you can do is to be kind. Be good. Be the best you can be. And enjoy your life together.”

He wants to argue, wants to ask how he can enjoy what feels like borrowed time, but he keeps quiet.

“I’ll let you do it,” she says. “If that will make you feel more at ease.”

“Give him the Sleep?” Baekhyun asks.

She smiles.

He kisses her on the cheek.

“Thank you,” he says. “Thank you.”

“It’s nothing. Now come,” she says, and she pours the tea into the mug. “Drink.”

The tea is pink, violently pink, and when he raises it to his lips, it smells like the prickle-rose. He sips it carefully.

“The whole thing,” she says. “All at once.”

He tips his head back, and he swallows it down, grimacing a little at the sting of the heat.

“And?” he asks. “What now?”

“We see if you keep it down,” she says.

They don’t speak, and Baekhyun waits to feel his stomach churning, waits for his mouth to water like his body means to expel poison, but...it never comes. He feels fine. He breathes out.

“False,” she says, and Baekhyun can’t tell if he’s relieved or disappointed.

“That’s--that’s good,” Baekhyun says.

“You run home and tell him, then,” she says. “You’re free for the day.”

“Thank you, Omega,” Baekhyun says.

“And you both better be careful from now on,” she says. “If I have to pull you back in here in another week to make you drink the tea again, I’ll have that alpha of yours by his ears.”

“We’ll be careful,” Baekhyun says, smiling. “I’m sorry for making you worry.”

She laughs.

“I’m a mother,” she says. “Worrying is my job.”

 

 

☽

 

 

Baekhyun gets back to the cabin before Sehun does, stomach full of nerves writhing like worms, so he strips off his boots, and then goes to lay down in bed, wrapping himself up in the furs and covering his head.

When Sehun walks in, Baekhyun peeks out from underneath the covers.

“Omega,” he says, gently. “Everything okay?”

“My mother thought I was with child,” he says, and then he ducks back underneath the covers.

Sehun chokes loudly, and then Baekhyun hears him walk towards the bed. He feels a hand rest on his shoulder through all the furs.

“With child?” Sehun says.

“We were working,” Baekhyun says, and it feels easier to stay like this, hidden, “and she was leaning over my shoulder, and I guess she smelled me? She said I smelled like milk. So she made me drink this tea. To test.”

Sehun peels the covers back, and Baekhyun resists the urge to cover his face with his hands. He stares at Baekhyun with such intense eyes, and it’s so much, so much to handle.

“And?” he asks.

“I’m not,” Baekhyun says.

Sehun leans down to hug Baekhyun, and Baekhyun accepts it, clinging to Sehun.

“Happy or sad?” Sehun asks.

“Both,” Baekhyun says.

Sehun hums, and it rumbles through his chest like a purr.

“Me too,” Sehun says.

One more moon, Baekhyun thinks. One more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy almost weekend/weekend depending on ur time zone and stuff, lol 
> 
> u know the spiel: hope u enjoyed, thanks for reading and thanks for commenting, i need it or else i die, twitter is @wolfsupremacist, feel free to follow and yell publicly or send me a message through curious cat and yell at me anonymously. all good 
> 
> love u, muah muah muah!!!!


	13. steeping amber

Baekhyun thinks more and more about puppies. When he’s bathing. When he’s walking to work. When he’s eating. When he’s supposed to be listening to Jongdae. When he’s supposed to be listening to Sehun. When he’s supposed to be listening to his mother.

He starts making clothes. Little things. He doesn’t know why. Maybe to keep his mind off of something else, to keep him from overreacting about what happens soon. So he sews in the evenings, facing the fire, shielding the work from Sehun.

“What are you doing over there? You’re being so quiet, it’s making me nervous,” Sehun asks, and Baekhyun hides the little shoes under a blanket before he turns around.

“Nothing,” Baekhyun smiles. “Just thinking.”

Sehun gives him a look, and Baekhyun knows it well. He doesn’t believe him.

But he says nothing more, just goes back to his book, smirking to himself, which makes Baekhyun think that maybe he’s not half as clever as he thinks he is.

 

 

☽

 

 

The more Baekhyun thinks about pups, the more he thinks about the Sleep. And the more Baekhyun thinks about the Sleep, the worse it becomes.

“It’s just some silly tradition,” he says, waving his hands around. “It’s ridiculous!”

“Tradition or no, it  _is_ the way our pack finds mates,” Jongdae says, picking his teeth. “If you didn’t Sleep, do you think you’d still be shacked up with Oh Sehun? Unlikely, friend.”

“That’s different,” Baekhyun says. “I needed a push in the right direction.”

“Maybe he needs a push too,” Jongdae says.

“Towards what?” Baekhyun asks incredulously. “He’s already got me.”

“Precisely,” Jongdae says. “Maybe the Lady’s gonna tell him she made a mistake. _That Baekhyun. He’s no good. Sejeong’s the omega for you, my child._ ”

Baekhyun chases Jongdae down and punches him in the arm until he begs for mercy.

 

 

☾

 

 

“You want to bathe now or in the morning?” Sehun asks, hand in Baekhyun’s as they walk from the hall after supper.

Baekhyun spots Sehun’s fathers, though, so he immediately seizes the opportunity.

“Morning,” Baekhyun says. “But you can go now, if you’d prefer.”

“I’m good with morning,” he says. “It’s getting hot in the afternoons now, I don’t mind running with wet fur. Feels nice that way.”

Baekhyun bites his lip, and he can practically feel his window closing.

“I changed my mind,” he says. “I wanna go now.”

“Yeah?” Sehun asks, a curious look on his face. “Okay. Let’s go then.”

He starts pulling them in the direction of the river, but Baekhyun digs his heels into the dirt.

“Yes?” Sehun asks, clearly amused.

“I’ll meet you there,” Baekhyun says, sputtering. “I’ve...I’ve got something to do.”

“I can wait until you’re finished,” Sehun says, smiling. “I don’t mind.”

“Go,” Baekhyun says, and he starts pushing Sehun away. “Go, go.”

“You’re such a strange little pup,” Sehun says, and he kisses Baekhyun’s nose. “Fine, I’ll go. But I expect something in return. You know, since I’m being such a kind, understanding alpha and all.”

Baekhyun eyes him warily. He  _hates_ it in the river.

“Fine,” he hastily agrees. “Now go.”

Sehun pulls him into a real kiss, wet and loud, and Baekhyun loses track of time easily that way, so he shoves Sehun away.

“I’m serious,” Baekhyun says. “Go!”

“Yes, Omega,” Sehun says smiling, and he wanders off to the river, going as slow as his feet can possibly move. Baekhyun would hate him if he didn’t love him so much.

When Sehun’s finally out of eyesight, Baekhyun walks to Sehun’s fathers.

“Alpha, Omega,” he says, bowing quickly.

“Baekhyun,” the omega says. “It’s good to see you.”

“Good to see you too,” Baekhyun says. “Um. I just wanted to...I wanted to talk to you both about something.”

The omega turns to the alpha, smiling.

“Why don’t you come by the house?” the alpha says. “We’ll make tea.”

Baekhyun follows them back to Sehun’s childhood home, sitting awkwardly at the table while the tea steeps. He watches as the water turns to a pretty golden orange color.

“Okay,” the omega says. “What would you like to talk about?”

“Well,” Baekhyun says, moving his hands to his lap so they can’t see him twisting them uncomfortably, “I’m sure you know that Sehun’s Sleep is soon.”

“Yes,” the omega says.

“So I just wanted to know...,” Baekhyun says. “Well, I just wanted to see if Sehun has told you. About his Sleep, I mean.”

Alpha turns to Omega, and they smile at each other again, but this time, it’s more sorrowful than anything else.

“He’s told us, yes,” the omega says.

“And...so you know he could fall,” Baekhyun says, panic rising in him, though he tries to keep it out of his voice. “And you’re going to let him Sleep anyway?”

“Baekhyun,” the omega says, a hand resting on Baekhyun’s. A strange calm settles over him, and he doesn’t know if its the warmth of the tea or the omega’s scent, but he tries to fight it either way. “Baekhyun, you know that any of us could fall during the Sleep, right? There’s always a chance. But we all Sleep anyway.”

“Well, yes, technically any of us could fall,” Baekhyun says. “But I _saw_ him. I saw it in  _my_ Sleep.”

“Not everything that you see will come true,” the alpha says, and he rests his hand on Baekhyun’s too. “You see things that _could_ happen. Prophecy is volatile.”

“But...there’s a bigger chance,” Baekhyun argues. “There’s more of a chance. Doesn’t that matter?”

“It’s our way,” the alpha says. “It’s the way it’s always been.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s right,” Baekhyun says.

“Baekhyun,” the omega says.

“Can’t we--can’t we tell him not to?” Baekhyun asks pitifully. “You’re his parents. You can tell him what to do.”

They laugh, and he smiles, but he doesn’t really feel like smiling.

“If he didn’t want to, we wouldn’t force him,” the alpha says. “But he wants to.”

Baekhyun huffs.

“So talk some sense into him!” he says, a little louder than he intends. “Um. Sorry.”

They give him sad smiles, but he doesn’t want them.

“We know you’re worried for him,” the omega says, hand soft on Baekhyun’s. “We’re worried too. But we must have faith, Baekhyun. The Lady knows best.”

“The Lady knows best,” Baekhyun repeats, not entirely sure how much he believes it.

 

 

☽

 

 

When Baekhyun finally makes it to the river, Sehun is laying back against a nearby rock, still clothed.

“You waited?” Baekhyun asks.

“Of course,” Sehun says. “Didn’t want to get all wrinkly waiting for you to show up.”

“You just wanted to mate with me in the water,” Baekhyun accuses.

“That would be an added bonus, yes,” Sehun smiles.

“Filthy pup,” Baekhyun says, but he starts stripping himself of his clothes, and when Sehun jumps up to join him, he laughs.

He braces himself and walks into the water, but the night is fairly warm, so the chill of the river is welcome. He wades in up to his neck and then bends his knees, dunking his head under to wet his hair. When he breaks the surface of the water again, he runs his hands through the strands.

Strong hands pull him back by the hips.

“Wasting no time, I see,” Baekhyun grouses.

“What can I say?” Sehun says, grinding into the swell of Baekhyun’s ass. “I’m impatient.”

“You’re lucky I’m so nice,” Baekhyun says, and he tilts his head to the side so Sehun can bite at his mate mark lightly.

“Hm, I am lucky, aren’t I?” Sehun says. “Mm, and you smell nice too.”

“Yeah?” Baekhyun asks, and he tilts his hips back in offering. “What do I smell like, Alpha?”

“Like my parents,” Sehun says, and Baekhyun can feel Sehun’s smirk against his neck.

“Ew,” Baekhyun says. “Don’t talk about your parents right now.”

“You saw them though, didn’t you?” Sehun says, and he runs a hand across Baekhyun’s chest, squeezing a nipple between his fingers, enough to make Baekhyun groan. “That’s where you went?”

“Yes, Sehun-ah, your sense of smell is very good,” Baekhyun gasps. “Fuck now, talk later.”

“I thought you hated it in the river,” Sehun teases, and he skims his hand across Baekhyun’s skin down, down, down, into the water, until he’s stroking at Baekhyun’s rapidly hardening cock.

“Shut up,” Baekhyun grits out, and he grinds back against Sehun before thrusting forward again into Sehun’s grip.

“Tell me you like it,” Sehun says, and he pairs it with a wicked twist of his wrist so good that it makes Baekhyun stumble onto the tips of his toes to chase it.  

“I like it,” Baekhyun breathes, and he relies entirely on Sehun to hold him upright. “Goddess, please.”

“Please what?” Sehun asks.

“Please, more,” Baekhyun says. “More. Please, Alpha. More.”

“I like when you’re all needy,” Sehun whispers, pausing to suck on the lobe of Baekhyun’s ear for a moment. “When you beg for it. It’s so rare. Normally, you’ll make demands. You’ll order me around. I like that too, pup, you know I like that, but...it’s always fun to see you fall apart.”

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun whines.

“I wanna knot you,” Sehun says, like it’s a confession. “Been thinking about it since last time. Wanna stuff you full. Watch it leak back out of you.”

“Please,” Baekhyun says, and he pushes back. They’ve been so careful since his heat, but Baekhyun wants it fiercely, with his whole fucking body. Arousal swirls in his stomach, in his fingers and in his toes, and he wants to come so fucking bad that it’s the only thing he can think about.

“You want that, don’t you?” Sehun asks, and Baekhyun gasps brokenly, sobbing a little when Sehun lets go of his cock. “Ah, give me a minute, puppy, hold on.”

The hand on his back is gentle, and then he’s being angled forward, ass out, with Sehun’s other hand braced gently on his stomach. The hand at his back dips down, and _Goddess_ , Baekhyun can feel himself soaking. Maybe he doesn’t hate it in the river as much as he thought he did.

“You want me to make a mess of you, pup?” Sehun teases, and he slides a long finger in. Baekhyun moans loudly, not bothering to bite it back. “That’s it, baby. That’s my omega. So tight, but you want it so bad.”

“More,” Baekhyun begs. “Another, Sehun-ah. Please.”

“You need it?” Sehun asks, twisting the finger and rubbing against his walls.

“Please,” Baekhyun cries. “Please. I need it.”

“Desperate today, huh?” Sehun says.

“Yes,” Baekhyun says, hissing it between his teeth.

“You want it soft and slow?” Sehun asks, and he pumps the finger in and out teasingly slow for a couple moments, so breathtakingly good that Baekhyun can’t do much more besides moan at the feeling. “Or do you want it hard and fast?”

Baekhyun doesn’t need to answer. His body does that for him. He tilts his hips up to meet the thrust of Sehun's finger. At that, Sehun withdraws. And when he pushes back in, he _shoves_ in with two.

“ _Goddess_ ,” Baekhyun tries to groan, but it ends abbreviated and shallow in his mouth as he can barely get enough air in his lungs to form the words.

Sehun fingers him vigorously like he means to take him apart bit by bit, and it’s the type of aggressive that makes Baekhyun feel claimed. Wanted.

Sehun’s hand on Baekhyun’s stomach wanders down again, grabs his dick again, makes him moan again. His body tries to do too much at first, tries to fuck into Sehun’s hand but also rock back against Sehun’s fingers. But Sehun works him rhythmically, makes him open up and just _take._ The water slaps against them as they move, and it sounds filthy coupled with their moans.

“Only time I’ve ever felt you this wet, you were in heat,” Sehun says.

“Sehun,” Baekhyun says, face red.

“Aw, don’t be shy. I like it when you’re this wet,” he says. “Makes it easy.”

And then he pulls out, leaving Baekhyun gasping and empty, clenching around nothing.

“Ah,” Sehun moans, and he rubs the head of his dick against Baekhyun’s rim. “You’re so pretty, pup.”

Baekhyun wants it so bad, he knows that if he was shifted, he’d be snapping his jaws at Sehun, trying to get him inside quicker. Baekhyun settles for words.

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun says, feet planted in the silt of the river. “Fuck me, puppy.”

“In the river?” Sehun asks, scandalized.

“If you don’t get inside me by the time I stop speaking, I’m going t--oh _fuck_ ,” Baekhyun moans, Sehun breaching him quickly and punching out a long, loud curse.

“You’re gonna what?” Sehun says, and Baekhyun looks over his shoulder to see him smirking. “Ooh, you look so mean right now. What are you gonna do, big bad pup?”

“I-I’m gonna--,” Baekhyun says, eyebrows still furrowed, racking his brain for a proper threat. “I’m gonna spank you.”

Sehun grins, dirty and wolfish.

“Stop,” Baekhyun whines, but it comes out fractured as his body shakes with Sehun’s thrusts. “You’re so…”

“Handsome? Sweet?” Sehun smiles. “Accommodating?”

“ _Annoying_ ,” Baekhyun says. “Shut up and fuck me, Alpha.”

Miraculously, Sehun does shut up, and Baekhyun lets himself fall forward again, letting the quick, almost punishing rhythm of Sehun’s hand and hips edge him closer and closer to the brink.

“Next time,” Sehun says, pulling Baekhyun back with a hand on his hip, “next time, we’ll do whatever you want.”

 _Fuck,_ Baekhyun’s mind swirled with possibilities. 

“Want me to keep talking now?” Sehun asks, and he rubs the head of Baekhyun’s cock with his fingers.

“Please,” Baekhyun says, so close. “Please, please.”

“We can lay down in the furs by the fire the way you like,” Sehun says. “Get you all nice and warm. I’ll get you honey wine. Get you all warm and loose. Touch you all over. Lick you all over. Wherever you want.”

And Baekhyun’s mind immediately jumps to Sehun’s head between his legs, lips wrapped around his cock or tongue dipping into his hole.

“I’ll make you come as many times as you want,” Sehun says. “But I thought maybe first...maybe you could fuck me.”

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun gasps, and he can’t help but remember how fucking tight it is, how Sehun’s face twists up in pleasure as Baekhyun pumps his hips into him.

“It’s so good,” Sehun says, and he thrusts _hard_ , almost sending Baekhyun toppling into the water. “It’s _so_ good, Omega. You make me come so hard when you fuck me.”

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun whines. “Make me come.”

“Yes,” Sehun says, and he tightens the fist around Baekhyun’s cock, makes a rough slide over the head once, twice, three times, and Baekhyun is hurdling over the edge, moaning out into the night, spilling into the water.

It feels like launching up into the sky, a shooting star, his whole body fiery and bright. And as he tumbles back to earth, he gradually stops seeing stars, gradually finds his breath again as Sehun continues to rock inside him gently.

Sehun lets Baekhyun ride out his orgasm before finally pulling out, and Baekhyun quickly turns to face him. He looks so pretty, a red blush high on his cheeks, skin shimmering with droplets of river water. Baekhyun’s heart leaps in his chest.

“Good?” Sehun asks.

He’s _so_ good, body alive with pleasure, with love. Baekhyun reaches out and takes Sehun's cock in a loose fist, a moan ringing out of Sehun’s mouth as he pushes into Baekhyun’s touch. He wants to make Sehun feel as good as Sehun makes him feel, and even if he doesn’t think it’s possible, he’s damn sure going to try.  

“Good,” Baekhyun says, and he closes the gap between him, pressing his lips against Sehun’s as he strokes him.

If they were anywhere else, Baekhyun would fall to his knees and suck Sehun’s cock clean until he came, but the water laps at them with every subtle movement, so he settles for stroking delicate fingers along the mark at Sehun’s collar, flicking his wrist as he sucks on Sehun’s tongue.

Baekhyun feels Sehun come moments later, the deep groans echoing in his mouth as he shudders apart in Baekhyun’s hands. It’s always so satisfying, watching Sehun come. His noises are never over the top or showy, so when he whimpers, Baekhyun feels like he’s earned it, and it fills him with pride.

He strokes Sehun carefully until Sehun laughs and pushes him away a little before wrapping his arms around Baekhyun and kissing his hair wetly. They stand there for countless moments, tucked into each other in the waist-deep water.

“Are we actually going to bathe now?” Baekhyun asks, and it elicits a laugh from Sehun.

“We can,” Sehun says, and he walks back out of the water to grab the soap. When he wades back toward Baekhyun, Baekhyun turns instinctively and then feels Sehun’s hands in his hair. “You going to be truthful while I have you like this?”

“I’m always truthful,” Baekhyun says, and he bites back a moan when Sehun scrubs at his scalp. It feels wonderful, but they’ve made enough noise for one evening, he reckons.

“A lie if I’ve ever heard one,” Sehun laughs, and he works the lather into Baekhyun’s hair. “Okay then, since my omega is always so honest, tell me this: what did you talk to my parents about?”

It’s not like he didn’t know Sehun would ask. He’s more perceptive than Baekhyun gives him credit for, and they’re past the point in their relationship where they hide things from one another. Still, Baekhyun doesn’t have an answer that makes him feel like anything other than a stupid puppy.

“I--,” Baekhyun starts, Sehun’s fingers at the nape of his neck.

“It’s okay,” Sehun says. 

“I wanted to make sure they knew,” Baekhyun says. “About what could happen.”

Sehun gently guides Baekhyun to the deeper waters, to where the river comes up to Baekhyun’s neck, up to Sehun’s shoulders. Sehun directs Baekhyun to tip his head back, and when he does, Sehun cups a hand to fill with water, carefully rinsing Baekhyun’s hair.

“I tell them everything,” Sehun says.

“Well,” Baekhyun says, throat tight at the angle, “not everything, I hope.”

Sehun’s smile is bright white and stunning, even in the coming darkness.

“Not everything,” Sehun agrees. His fingers are so tender in Baekhyun’s hair, brushing through the strands with his nails softly, and it’s so intimate that, for a moment, Baekhyun feels a bit like crying. “Aw, pup.”

“Shut up,” Baekhyun says, and he raises his head out of the water so fast that he sprays water everywhere. “Come on, let me get you.”

They move back to a shallower place, and Sehun turns. Baekhyun has to reach to wash his hair, but he doesn’t mind, especially not with the way that he gets to watch the muscles of Sehun’s back and shoulders relax under his ministrations. It feels like a form of worship, and maybe it’s sacrilege to even think it, but Baekhyun knows that if he had the choice between the Goddess of the moon and his alpha, he’d follow Sehun to the ends of the earth without a second thought.

“Was that it?” Sehun asks, voice so soft that Baekhyun almost misses it.

“Was what it?” Baekhyun replies.

“Was that all you talked to them about?” Sehun asks. “Or was there more?”

Baekhyun huffs a breath.

“No secrets,” Sehun reminds him.

“Let’s wash you out,” Baekhyun says, dipping his hands in the water before tapping Sehun on the shoulder.

He pushes Sehun into the deepest part of the river, and washes the soap out of his hair for him. He can’t help but notice, with his eyes closed, eyelashes so pretty and long, that Sehun looks so peaceful this way.

“Baekhyun,” Sehun says, eyes still closed. “Stop stalling.”

“I’m not stalling,” Baekhyun says bitterly. “I’m just--I’m just finding my words.”

Sehun’s eyes flash open, a smirk on his face.

“Find them a bit quicker then,” he orders, and Baekhyun could drown him.

“I told them they should talk some sense into you,” Baekhyun says, hand still petting through Sehun’s hair. “And I stand by that. I think you need sense talked into you.”

“Oh yeah?” Sehun asks.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun says. “You know how I feel about this.”

“I know,” Sehun says. “But you trust me, right?”

He raises his head from the water and looks Baekhyun straight in the eye. Baekhyun wants to shy away from it, the intensity of it.

“You do trust me, don’t you?” Sehun asks.

“You know I do,” Baekhyun says.

“Then trust me in this,” Sehun says. “Trust me that I’ll come back to you.”

“I do,” Baekhyun says. “I _do_. But it’s just…”

“Just?”

“Just...I can’t help it.”

Sehun smiles, and that sets Baekhyun’s heart at ease. It’s silly, how it just takes that. Something so small.

“I know, pup,” Sehun says, and then Sehun’s dragging him into an embrace. “You’re such a sweet, thoughtful thing. But you worry too much. Nothing bad is going to happen.”

“Shut up,” Baekhyun says, but he lets Sehun leech his anxiety away from him until he’s calm in the cool water of the river.

 

 

☾

 

 

Sundown comes later and later with every passing sun, and several days later, by the time that it’s dark, Baekhyun is yawning as he walks up the hill to meet Sehun.

“Hi,” Sehun says, all gentle and soft like Baekhyun’s a flame-mare he’s trying to touch.

“Hi,” Baekhyun says, and it’s easy to hug Sehun close to him right there. He’s desperate for affection. In truth, he always has been, but it’s so easy to admit now.

“New moon,” Sehun says. “Should be in a couple days.”

Baekhyun breathes out unevenly.

“Hey,” Sehun says, and he wraps his arms around Baekhyun carefully. “We talked about this. You know I’ll be back before you know it.”

“I know,” Baekhyun says, and it’s getting easier to say which must mean that he’s starting to believe it more and more. “I know.”

Sehun nips at the top of his ear, and it serves as a distraction, Baekhyun breathing in sharply.

“Yah!” Baekhyun says. “Quit it.”

Sehun laughs, and he buries his hands in Baekhyun’s hair before tugging him into a fierce kiss. Baekhyun loses himself to it the way he always does, and it’s good, it’s a _perfect_ reminder of what he has. What he’ll always have.

When Sehun breaks the kiss, he nips at Baekhyun’s bottom lip lightly, and Baekhyun braces his hands on Sehun’s chest to keep himself steady.

“Chanyeol said his father’s ice wine will be ready tonight,” Sehun says. “Earlier than last year, since the winter was so cold.”

“Yeah?” Baekhyun says, still feeling a bit dazed from the kiss. It’s a wonder how it can still affect him so wholly.

“You like the ice wine, don’t you? Your favored drink?” Sehun asks, smiling. “I already made sure that he’d set aside a bottle for us. I thought we could go out to the base of the mountain tonight. Bring some furs. Make a fire. Have supper up there instead of in the hall.”

Baekhyun’s heart clenches in his chest, warm and happy.

“That’s awfully romantic, puppy,” Baekhyun says, poking Sehun in the cheek.

“I’m feeling awfully romantic,” Sehun says, and he kisses Baekhyun on the nose. “What do you say?”

“Well, how could I say no?” Baekhyun says.

 

 

☽

 

 

Sehun is the one who makes the walk to the hall to pack their basket full of food. Baekhyun is the one who selects the furs, the ones least precious to them so if they get ruined, he won’t care _too_ much. He throws them over his arm and meets Sehun by the walking trail that leads up to the mountain.

“This feels like you’re trying to court me again,” Baekhyun says when Sehun laces his fingers with Baekhyun’s.

“Never did it properly,” Sehun says, eyes cast low. Shy. “I should have done more. More gifts and things.”

“I didn’t need courting,” Baekhyun scoffs. “Plus what would you call all those furs you left for me?”

“I would call that being a coward,” Sehun smiles. “I wanted to...I wanted to make sure you knew you were loved. Make sure you knew how I felt without saying it out loud most times.”

“Please,” Baekhyun says, cheeks pink. “You’re too sweet for me.”

“You’re the sweet one,” Sehun says. “That’s why I want to be sweet to you.”

" _Please_ ,” Baekhyun says, scuffing his feet along the dirt of the trail.

Sehun smiles, doesn’t challenge Baekhyun further. He does, however, squeeze Baekhyun’s hand in his. A comfort.  

The rest of the walk to the mountain is leisurely, and it’s peaceful in its silence. Baekhyun takes the chance to survey the line of the forest. His eyes train on a little cloud-bunny, tail as white as snow, bouncing along the air as it hovers above the ground.

If Baekhyun was more poetic, he’d think it a metaphor. Something so soft, so precious in such a dangerous world. Bounding. Light as air.

When they reach the mountain, Sehun sets the basket down and smooths the furs along the ground.

“Sit,” Sehun says, and Baekhyun does, slipping off his shoes before running his toes through the furs. He watches as Sehun gathers kindling and wood for a fire before shamelessly turning back to Baekhyun.

“What?” Baekhyun asks.

“You’re better at fires,” Sehun says.

Baekhyun rolls his eyes before standing up again, lighting the kindling with a practiced hand, watching the wood catch, char, smoke, and then flame.

“I have such a pretty, talented omega. He lights my fires for me,” Sehun says, lounging back against the furs. Baekhyun lets his eyes slide up the length of his body. He makes an appreciative noise. “Like what you see?”

“Obviously, dumb pup. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be staring so blatantly,” Baekhyun says, and he brushes his hands off on his shorts.

“Come on, then,” Sehun says, and he pats the spot next to him. “Join me.”

Baekhyun only barely resists the urge to roll his eyes again, but he does sit back down, legs tangled with Sehun’s. The scattered mating calls of the cicadas fill the air.

The meal is sumptuous: a honeyed chicken stew with almonds, slices of candied bacon, warm hearth bread with butter. By the time they’re finished with their meal, full and slightly hot from the fire, the fireflies are glowing around them. The whole night looks rosy because of them, a faint pink glow in the air as they fly.

“Pretty,” Baekhyun mumbles as one lands on his wrist.

“Yeah,” Sehun says, and he captures one in his hands, two palms full of blushing light, before he lets it fly away from them, both of them staring into the sky as it goes.

“This was...a really good idea,” Baekhyun says. “Thank you.”

Sehun smiles and shows all his teeth, a rarity. Baekhyun loves it intensely, the way he loves all things about him.  

“Wine?” he offers.

Baekhyun nods eagerly, and when Sehun provides them both a healthy pour, they tip the cups together, a satisfying little _click_ between them.

“What should we toast to?” Sehun asks.

“Hm,” Baekhyun says. “Should be something good.”

“To you, then,” Sehun offers.

“And you,” Baekhyun says.

“To the Sleep,” Sehun says, “for bringing us together.”

“To the Lady,” Baekhyun says, “for keeping us safe.”

“To the fireflies,” Sehun smiles.

“To Chanyeol’s father,” Baekhyun grins.

“Yeah,” Sehun says. “To all that.”

“And to love,” Baekhyun says.

At that, Sehun drinks, so Baekhyun drinks too.

 

 

☾

 

 

“You were no higher than a baby snow-deer the first time you tried to scent me,” Baekhyun slurs. “How dare you.”

“That was an accident and you _know_ it,” Sehun laughs, jabbing a finger into the softness of Baekhyun’s stomach. “I lost my footing!”

“Accident or no,” Baekhyun says before taking another sip, “you were so obvious. Always following me. Goddess, you little pup.”

He throws himself across the fur, nearly losing control of the drink in his hand, to kiss Sehun messily.

“You were obvious in your own way,” Sehun says, mouth against Baekhyun’s.

“And what, pray tell, is that supposed to mean, Alpha?” Baekhyun asks. He leans back to appraise Sehun, the liar.

Sehun leans up on one of his elbows.

“You always hung out with the alphas,” Sehun says, and his eyes are glassy, but he wears a smile. “Even when the rest of the omegas hung back, you always talked to everyone. You didn’t care.”

“So?” Baekhyun says.

“You still managed to make sure to stay far away from me,” Sehun laughs.

“And that’s being obvious?” Baekhyun says.

“For you? Yes,” Sehun says. “What did all the elders used to call you? Ah. _Butterfly Baekhyun_.”

“Don’t call me that,” Baekhyun whines, slapping a hand over his eyes. “It was so embarrassing.”

“Little puppy Baekhyun? Embarrassed about something?” Sehun scoffs. “Unlikely.”

“They made me feel strange!” Baekhyun says. “Like I wasn’t supposed to be friendly!”

“Aw, and yet you showed no shame,” Sehun laughs.

“Of course not,” Baekhyun says primly. “I had nothing to feel shame for.”

“No,” Sehun says. “And I got to watch as you smiled at everyone except me. And once I figured it out, once I realized what was happening...I started to like it. You being mean to me. Because it wasn’t mean, not really. You were only teasing.”

“Please,” Baekhyun scoffs. “I was mean. There was no teasing.”

“If I wore my hair in twin tails, you would have pulled them both,” Sehun smiles.

“Oh, you’re such a soft wolf,” Baekhyun says, slapping Sehun on the shoulder.

“You’re the soft one,” Sehun says. “Remember when you tripped me on purpose during one of the training runs?”

“You were too close to me!” Baekhyun screeches.

“But what did you do after?” Sehun asks, a self-satisfied smile on his lips.

“No,” Baekhyun says. “We’re not playing this game.”

“Tell me what you did,” Sehun says.

“I’ve no need, you remember fine on your own,” Baekhyun grumbles, taking another sip of the ice wine. _Goddess_ , it’s cold. Between the drink freezing its way through his insides and the fire and Sehun’s body warming his outsides, he didn’t know which way was up.

“Help me, little omega,” Sehun pleads, a goofy, drunken look on his face as he holds his hands together in prayer. “Help me remember.”

Baekhyun makes a noise of displeasure.

“I may have been concerned about your well-being,” Baekhyun says. “Considering you cried like a little puppy.”

“You nearly broke my ankle!” Sehun whines.

“Sprains only take a sundown to heal with the Cure Coal,” Baekhyun chides. “Weak wolf.”

“ _Your_ weak wolf,” Sehun says. “So you ran back to the Healer’s House, and you gave me the Cure Coal yourself, wouldn’t even let your mother do it, and then…”

“And then I made Chanyeol carry you back,” Baekhyun says. “Because you were too big for me to carry.”

“And you came in my house,” Sehun says. “That was the first time, you know. I remember it so vividly. Chanyeol put me in my bed and left, but you stayed. You stayed until my parents came home, and you explained what happened. Apologized to them. They laughed, and you...you asked if you could stay. So you came back to my room, and you said _I’m sorry, Sehun-ah_. First time you ever called me that.”

“I love that you remember all this,” Baekhyun says.

“Stuck in my head forever, I think,” Sehun says.

“Because you were pining over me,” Baekhyun says.

“Yeah,” Sehun admits. “Always liked you.”

“You’re too good,” Baekhyun says. “You’re too sweet.”

“You sat on the bed next to me, made sure my leg was all propped up on pillows. Remember when you took my hand?” Sehun asks.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun says, “I remember.”

“That’s when I knew for sure,” Sehun says. “That’s when I knew that I would be yours, and you’d be mine.”

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun says. “Please.”

“You stayed with me until I fell asleep,” Sehun says softly.  

“Well, I did feel a little bad,” Baekhyun says.

“I know,” Sehun says wickedly. “I liked that.”

“Yeah, you were evil about it,” Baekhyun says.

“I didn’t _make_ you do my chores,” Sehun says. “You volunteered.”

“You could have said _no_ ,” Baekhyun says.

“But then I wouldn’t have gotten to talk to you,” Sehun says.

“You liked me that much?” Baekhyun asks. “Even when I was mean?”

“I always thought of it as you giving me tough love,” Sehun says, and he pulls Baekhyun into a messy hug, both of them drunker than they should be. “You only ever truly hurt me once. And I know you’d never do it again.” 

“Never,” Baekhyun agrees. “I love you too much.”

Sehun hums pleasantly, and Baekhyun feels it rumble through his body too with the way they lean into each other.

“It’ll always be like this, right?” Baekhyun asks into Sehun’s shirt. “We’ll always have this, won’t we?”

“Always,” Sehun promises.

And Baekhyun knows it to be true, because Sehun never breaks a promise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> remember: dont have sex in rivers. also, watch busted on netflix. 
> 
> anyway, wolves on dates. whats not to like, right? i have so many little stories thought up abt their adolescence/teen years that its comical but the story is finished and there's nowhere to put them aksjdjga. i hope u liked this lil chapter. not to spoil anything, but this is what weather-watchers would call "the calm before the storm" i think
> 
> is it weird that i update so quickly? i dont know. i just get bored kjaskdjg. if that is annoying, let me know and i will space the updates out better. 
> 
> thank you as always for reading and for commenting so diligently. i have Self Esteem Issues™ but the comments i get are always so sweet and they always make me feel so good and i truly cant thank u enough for them!!! Blessed Be The Commenters 
> 
> if ur so inclined, u can follow my awful writing journey at @wolfsupremacist on twitter and tell me im trash at my curious cat. OK THANKS BYE!!!!


	14. livid

Baekhyun wakes the next morning, the early morning sun streaming onto his face. He expects for his mouth to feel dry, for his head to ache in pulses, but when he extracts himself from Sehun’s grasp to sit up, he feels normal.

Mostly normal, he thinks, as he looks around and sees the pretty glen under the mountain. Falling asleep where and when they shouldn’t is becoming a bit of a habit.

The fire died out in the night, and it’s still early enough that the air is crisp, the dew on the grass shining under the Father’s light.

Baekhyun looks at Sehun, still snoring gently beside him.

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun says softly, and he nudges Sehun’s shoulder a little. “Wake up, love.”

“Hm,” Sehun mumbles.

“We fell asleep,” Baekhyun says, shaking a bit more insistently. “Wake up, pretty boy.”

Sehun shushes him and pushes his hand away.

“ _Alpha_ ,” Baekhyun says.

Sehun’s response is to toss and turn onto his side, his back to Baekhyun.

“If you wake, I’ll suck your cock,” Baekhyun offers.

Sehun looks over his shoulder, hair a mess, with his eyes smiling.  

“Good morning,” he says sunnily.

“Good try, pup,” Baekhyun says. “Time for breakfast.”

Sehun scowls before sitting up and rubbing at his eyes.

“You’re mean,” Sehun says.

“The meanest,” Baekhyun says. “Come on, it’s time for work.”

 

 

☽

 

 

Baekhyun is in the forest, foraging, when he hears the shouts. One of the pack in jeopardy. He drops what he’s doing, doesn’t even stop to consider what it could be, and he runs towards the sound.

But by the time Baekhyun makes it back to the grounds, he stares up at the sky and sees exactly what the wolf was howling about.

The Father, sat high in his throne of the bright blue sky, is losing his light. Covered by an orb of black.

“It’s the Lady,” a young omega says, pointing up, and Baekhyun sees her as she moves, slow, covering the Father.

Baekhyun runs to the House to grab his mother.

“Baekhyun,” she grouses, “I’m busy.”

“It’s...something is happening,” he fumbles. “The Lady is blocking the Father. The sky’s going dark.”

Her face lights up.

“Really?” she asks.

Baekhyun drags her by the hand outside and points to the sky, watching as she shields her eyes a bit with her palm.

“It’s been forever,” she says. “I haven’t seen one since I was a puppy.”

“What is it?” Baekhyun asks, and he sees the moon totally blot out the sun, a thin line of ghostly white light around the cusp.

“My grandmother called it The Lady’s Might,” his mother says. “But my father called it Eclipse.”

“What--what happens?” Baekhyun says, and the world goes dark around them, the sky black.

“Just this,” his mother says. “Isn’t it pretty?”

And Baekhyun bites back his fear enough to consider it. He looks around, at other wolves taking the time to look up at the sky, hugging each other, smiling. Laughing as the world goes dim. And gradually, slowly, slowly, the world starts to brighten again, the moon moving away again, letting the sun shine brilliantly once more.

“It is,” Baekhyun agrees. _Was_ , he corrects.

 

 

☾

 

 

They lay in bed later that night, Sehun stroking fingers down Baekhyun’s breast bone, his head light on Baekhyun’s chest.

“Did you see it?” Baekhyun asks.

Sehun hums.

“Jongin and I were on a perimeter run,” Sehun says. “I thought I was going blind for a second, everything was going dark.”

Baekhyun laughs, and Sehun joins him: a sweet duet. They let the laughter dwindle, evaporate into the air until silence surrounds them once more. But Baekhyun can’t make his mind stop moving, can’t seem to get his head to quiet down.

“It’s good, right?” Baekhyun says.

“What’s good?” Sehun replies.

“The Eclipse? It’s a good omen, right?” Baekhyun asks.

Sehun hums again and doesn’t say anything for a long time. Baekhyun fidgets under his touch, and he hears Sehun huff out a laugh at it, like he can tell exactly what Baekhyun is thinking. Like he knows exactly what Baekhyun needs to hear.  

“I think it’s a blessing,” Sehun says. “A good Sleep.”

 _Goddess_ , Baekhyun hopes so.

 

 

☽

 

 

When he goes to the Healer’s House the next morning, his mother stops him at the door.

“It’s tonight,” she says, and Baekhyun’s heart freezes like it’s caught in a bottle of ice wine.

“Right,” he says, trying to school his expression. “Okay.”

“Go home,” she orders. “Have a good day. Treat him to something special. And prepare.”

“Okay,” Baekhyun says. “Thank you.”

She holds his face in one hand, directs him to look to the side as she kisses him on the cheek.

“Before you go,” she says, and she turns back, walks inside, and comes back to the threshold holding a jar of milky, silvery liquid. “You know the words. You know what to do.”

Baekhyun nods.

“May the Lady bring you luck,” she says. “I’ll see you soon, child.”

 

 

☾

 

 

Baekhyun doesn’t know where Sehun is. He looks around the immediate vicinity of the grounds, but doesn’t see him standing watch, which means it could be a run day, could be a hunt day. He’s never sure. So he walks to the south to find Junmyeon, who always knows where everyone is, especially Sehun.

He spots him in the field, hands in the dirt, a wide brimmed hat on his head to protect him from the burgeoning spring heat.

“Hi,” Baekhyun says, walking alertly across the field so as to not step on any fledgling crops.

“Baekhyun,” Junmyeon says, and there’s a splash of surprise on his face for a moment before it fades into happiness. “Good to see you.”

“And you,” Baekhyun says before gesturing to the soil. “What are you working on?”

“Potatoes today,” Junmyeon says. “Have to get them going early. They don’t like the summers.”

“Ah,” Baekhyun says. “That’s smart, then.”

Junmyeon squints up at Baekhyun.

“Did you come to discuss root vegetables, Baekhyun?” Junmyeon smiles.

“Not really, no,” Baekhyun says. “Um. New moon, tonight.”

Realization strikes, and Baekhyun watches it blossom on Junmyeon’s face.

“Right then,” Junmyeon says.

He dusts his hands off on his pants.

“They’re hunting in the west today,” he says. “I hope you don’t mind if I come with you. To...send him off and all.”

“Of course not,” Baekhyun says, happy that he’ll have someone to accompany him. Someone to keep him out of his head until Sehun’s with him.

Junmyeon smiles again, dazzling and pretty.

“Off we go, then,” he says, and he starts walking, Baekhyun following his lead.

 

 

☽

 

 

The Western Wood is dense, thick with the tall ironwood trees.

“Shift,” Junmyeon tells him once they’re deep in the forest.

“Why?” Baekhyun asks.

Junmyeon rolls his eyes.

“Don’t be a dumb puppy. If he hears you howl, he’s going to come running,” Junmyeon says.

Baekhyun supposes he can’t really argue with that logic, so he walks off, strips himself of his clothes, and shifts to his wolf. He shudders at the feeling, something base and _right_ about it, as he pads back through the wood, back to where Junmyeon stands.

He noses against Junmyeon’s hand until Junmyeon pets him, earning him a laugh.

“Puppy,” Junmyeon says. “Go ‘head. Call him.”

Baekhyun tilts his head back and unleashes a howl from the depths of his chest, one that rings out into the air, loud and proud.

Silence follows until, moments later,  he hears an answering howl, longer and deeper than his own.

“Good job,” Junmyeon says. “Now go get dressed.”

Baekhyun follows Junmyeon’s orders, tail between his legs. He’s in the middle of throwing on his shirt when he hears the pounding of paws against soil.

“Where is he?” he hears Sehun say, a little panicky.

“He’s just over there, getting dressed,” Junmyeon offers.

“He’s okay?”

“He’s fine,” Junmyeon says.

Baekhyun walks out to greet Sehun, who stands there naked as the day he was born.

“Hi,” Baekhyun says.

“Hi,” Sehun says, smiling, breathing heavy like he ran at a sprint until he found Baekhyun.

“Sorry to worry you,” Baekhyun says.

“It was the most efficient way of getting you here,” Junmyeon says.

“That’s true,” Sehun says. “I’ll go get my clothes. Be right back.”

He shifts again, the great white wolf blinking darkly back at them within the snap of his fingers, and then he’s off.

Sehun returns quicker than Baekhyun thought he might: he’s fast even in his human skin, after all. He’s breathless still, hair wet with sweat and glowing under the light filtering through the treetops.

“I just wanted to wish you well, since I figure you both have plans for the afternoon, and probably for the evening too,” Junmyeon says, a smirk on his face. “I’ll see you next moon, okay?”

“Yeah,” Sehun says. “Thank you.”

“I love you,” Junmyeon says, and then he throws himself into Sehun’s arms.

“I love you too,” Sehun says. “I’ll see you soon, ‘Myeon-ah.”

“Yeah, you will,” Junmyeon says confidently before gesturing to Baekhyun. “I’ll take care of him.”

“Yah,” Baekhyun says, indignant. “I don’t need a caretaker.”

“Please,” Junmyeon scoffs, “if I don’t deliver you meals periodically, I know you’ll starve at his bedside.”

Baekhyun hadn’t really considered eating during Sehun’s Sleep.

“That’s what I thought,” he says primly before turning back to Sehun. “I’ll leave you to your day. Sleep well, Alpha.”

“Thank you, Omega,” Sehun says, and they watch as Junmyeon walks back in the direction of the fields, back to his crops.

 

 

☾

 

 

They walk back to the North with their hands entangled.

“What would you like to do?” Baekhyun asks. “It’s your day.”

“I don’t know,” Sehun says. “We could just hang around, if you’d like.”

“It’s not about what _I’d_ like,” Baekhyun says. “It’s about what _you’d_ like.”

“I like whatever we do, as long as I’m with you,” Sehun says, and maybe, if Sehun was anyone else, it would sound saccharine, overly sugary like dessert on top of more dessert, so sweet it makes your teeth and your stomach ache. But Sehun is genuine down to his soul, down to the blood and bone. So kind. So real.

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun whines.

“Okay, okay,” Sehun says. “How about we go swim?”

“River?” Baekhyun asks.

“Lake,” Sehun says, delighted. “Come on, pup. Let’s go.”

He takes off running, leaving Baekhyun in his wake. Baekhyun shakes it off and speeds off behind him.

 

 

☾

 

 

The lake is off their pack’s territory, on the far side of the mountain, so it’s been a while since Baekhyun’s seen it. He went there more when he was a rambunctious, rebellious puppy, doing whatever people told him not to. He remembers the pretty red Houndsblood bushes at the border, the bright blue reflection of the sky on the water, puffy white clouds like bunnies bouncing through the sky. When they approach, the crystal clear waters call to him.

“Ah,” Sehun says, “smells so nice up here.”

Baekhyun sniffs exaggeratedly, tries to pick out a scent or an emotion, but he can’t find anything of note.

“Smells like nothing,” Baekhyun says.

“Yeah,” Sehun says, already stripping out of his shirt. “Exactly.”

He makes quick work of his clothes at the edge of the lake, and Baekhyun can’t remember ever seeing him quite so happy as he runs into the water.

He splashes around like a pup before turning back to Baekhyun, hair sticking up every which way.

“Are you coming?” he asks.

Baekhyun strips himself of his shirt, and Sehun whistles.

“I’ll put it back on,” Baekhyun threatens, but it’s an idle threat, of course.

“ _No,_ ” Sehun whines. “You’re too pretty, I can’t help myself. Get in the water.”

“I’ll get in when I feel like it,” Baekhyun says primly.

“Don’t you feel like it now?” Sehun asks. “Your mate is lonely.”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes before shucking himself of his pants to a raucous cheer.

“You act as if it’s the first time you saw me without clothes,” Baekhyun says as he wades into the water. “When it’s probably been closer to a hundred or a thousand times.”

“Feels like the first time every time,” Sehun says, and he swims to meet Baekhyun in an embrace. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Baekhyun answers. He kisses Sehun sweetly, and then not so sweetly, and then downright dirty. He licks into Sehun’s mouth, messy and wet, and moans when Sehun’s hands come to rest on his ass. Baekhyun moans, bucks his hips back and then forward again. It’s torturous, but he loves it.

“What’s gotten into you, hm?” Sehun asks, moving his mouth to suck at the mark on Baekhyun’s neck. “One good fuck in the river, and now you can’t get enough?”

Baekhyun wraps his legs around Sehun’s waist, lets Sehun hold him near weightless in the water.

“Shut up,” Baekhyun whispers against Sehun’s lips, and he kisses him once more, sucking on his tongue until Sehun moans into his mouth.

“Not that this isn’t a very enjoyable turn of events,” Sehun says, “but I truly did mean swimming.”

“You have a wet and willing omega in your lap, and you want to swim?” Baekhyun asks.

“Ideally,” Sehun says, an innocent smile on his face. “At first, anyway.”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes, but Sehun is so cute that he can’t even bother acting like he’s bothered.

It turns out to be the most relaxing day Baekhyun’s had in a long while, lazily swimming around, looking through the water at the lake floor where he can spot some baby flash frogs and some little lightning minnows that swirl at their feet. Sehun cups his hands, scoops some of them and holds them up for Baekhyun to look at before he gets zapped by a frightened one.

“Fuck,” Sehun curses as he jumps back, and he drops them back into the water fast.

“Serves you right, scaring the poor things,” Baekhyun says. “Are you okay?”

Sehun shakes off the shock fast, swimming over to press a kiss to Baekhyun’s lips.

“I’m fine,” he says before diving off to cross the lake, leaving Baekhyun to close the gap. “Race me!”

After the sun’s moved a ways since they arrived, Baekhyun walks back to the hall, gathers them lunch in a basket. He brings back a fur for good measure, and by the time he returns, Sehun is walking out of the water, looking like a vision.

“Best mate,” Sehun says, ruffling his wet hair with a smile. “Sweetest, prettiest mate. I’m so hungry.”  

“Well, good thing I’ve got us some food then,” Baekhyun says, smoothing the fur along the sandy shore.

Their lunch is mostly dried fruits and meats, cheese, and buttered bread which feels indulgent in its own way when Baekhyun decides to feed Sehun by hand. Baekhyun pushes Sehun onto his back, leans over him, and presses apricots to his lips. Sehun smiles through his chewing.

“This is perfect,” Sehun says. “It’s such a pretty day.”

“It is,” Baekhyun says, the sun on his naked skin so warm and welcome.

It is a small feast for two, and they devour it under the hot spring sun while the water of the lake laps against the bank of the sand, whipped up by the wind.

“Thank you,” Sehun says when they’ve all but emptied the basket.

“You’re welcome,” Baekhyun says. “More swimming?”

“Nap first,” Sehun says, and he tugs at Baekhyun until he’s laying in Sehun’s arms.

“Just for a little while,” Baekhyun says. “Wouldn’t want you to have to Sleep with a sunburn.”

Sehun laughs.

“Wouldn’t want that,” he agrees.

 

 

☾

 

 

Baekhyun stirs, and there are clever, slender fingers in his hair.

“How late is it?” Baekhyun asks sleepily, eyes still closed.

“Not that late,” Sehun replies.

When he opens his eyes, it’s clearly past half-day, the Father on his long walk to meet the Lady, to nudge her back into the sky for her turn.

Baekhyun cuddles back closer into Sehun, spooned into him. He feels Sehun hard at his back, and he swallows a laugh.

He doesn’t swallow it well enough though, apparently, because Sehun asks, “What’s so funny, hm?”

“Nothing,” Baekhyun says. “You just always wake up happy.”

Sehun grinds into Baekhyun.

“Is that what you call it?” Sehun chides. “ _Happy_?”

“Well, what would you call it then, Alpha?” Baekhyun asks, and he pushes back into it, earning a sharp intake of breath.

“I’d call it desperate for you,” Sehun says, and the next thing Baekhyun feels is Sehun’s mouth at his shoulder, kissing and sucking at the skin as if he means to leave a bruise.

 _Yes,_ Baekhyun thinks, something to watch while he Sleeps, something red, then something black, purple, and blue, then something sickly green, ugly yellow, before it turns brown like a big messy mate mark, bare of teeth.

Baekhyun moans softly as Sehun works, nipping at Baekhyun’s skin until the blood rises to the surface and then sucking at it. It serves to divert Baekhyun’s attention, of course, because he nearly yells when he feels fingers stroking along his lower back with intention.

“Don’t you want to go back into the water?” Baekhyun manages to gasp out, Sehun’s fingers wrapped around his cock more than a bit distracting.

“It’s not as fun anymore since I’ve made you like it,” Sehun says. “I have to find something else that you pretend to hate, so I can make you admit that you like it.”

“Only with you,” Baekhyun says. 

“Yeah?” Sehun asks. “Only with me?”

“Forever,” Baekhyun says. “Only you.”

“Ah,” Sehun says, and he directs Baekhyun to spread his legs, rubbing along the cleft of his ass until the slick starts to spill from him. He runs his fingers through it, spreads it along Baekhyun’s skin until he whines. “Only I get to have you like this, hm?”

“Yes,” Baekhyun says. “Yes, Alpha.”

“You’re making me feel quite possessive,” Sehun says, and he sounds strangely shameful. _Why?_ Baekhyun wonders. Being possessed by Sehun is the greatest possible outcome of his life.

“Good,” Baekhyun says. “I’m yours.”

“You’re too good for me, Omega,” Sehun says, but before Baekhyun can protest, can refute that little piece of nonsense, Sehun pushes a thin, long finger smoothly inside him, curling it expertly.

“ _Goddess_ ,” Baekhyun says when Sehun starts to stroke against him. “Sehun-ah, I can’t think when you do that.”

“Don’t think,” he says. “Just feel.”

So Baekhyun just feels. Just feels when Sehun stretches him open, pulling whimpers from his mouth. Just feels as Sehun wets his cock with Baekhyun’s slick before splitting him wide, one arm casual around Baekhyun’s waist, the other wrapped under where Baekhyun’s neck lays back against the fur. Just feels as Sehun confesses with his sweet, filthy words, things like _I love you, I love you,_ and _you feel so good_ and _you’re my forever, you’re my fucking forever._

“Hunnie,” Baekhyun begs. “Please.”

“Want it?” Sehun asks, and Baekhyun knows. Baekhyun _wants_.

The knot locks into him easily with a slap of their skin, his body so familiar and so prepared for it that Baekhyun almost sighs through it.

“Come,” Baekhyun says. “Alpha, come.”

Sehun moans, loud and somehow choked out, before he bites the bruise at Baekhyun’s shoulder, pulsing deep inside Baekhyun. Filling him. No tea this time, no pulling out. No careful tip-toeing around what could happen. Just a careless, selfish, beautiful, _perfect_ release. One they both needed, Baekhyun thinks. A reminder what Sehun will come back to.

“Fuck,” Sehun says when he finally stops biting, instead licking at the bruise. “Broke skin.”

“Knit me up then, puppy,” Baekhyun says, still panting.

“I’m gonna,” Sehun says, laving over Baekhyun’s skin as he moves his hand to pump Baekhyun’s cock. “Gonna make you come too.”

“Yes,” Baekhyun says, and he rocks back on Sehun’s knot, thrusting forward into Sehun’s fist, wet with his slick.

“Come for me, Omega,” Sehun says. “Let me hear you come. Let me hear you howl.”

Howl Baekhyun does, finding himself tumbling over the edge into orgasm head first. He nearly loses control of himself, of his hold on his human skin, because it feels so primal, feels so _natural_ to be with Sehun as a wolf. They’re of the Old World. Their kind will be around for a long time, and Baekhyun could see himself just as happy in either skin, as long as he was with Sehun. His soulmate.

He breathes out, body shaking as he comes down. Sehun strokes along his arm with a comforting hand, and he kisses chastely at the crook of Baekhyun’s neck.

“Good?” Sehun asks after a while.

“Good,” Baekhyun says.

“Good,” Sehun smiles, another kiss planted on the side of Baekhyun’s neck.

“I love you,” Baekhyun whispers, and to his own ears, it sounds like a cry. “I love you so much more than I ever thought I could love someone.”

“I know, puppy,” Sehun says. “I love you too.”

“More,” Baekhyun says, taking Sehun’s wrists in his hands and pulling so that his arms tighten more around his body. “Say more.”

“I don’t have to,” Sehun says, “because this isn’t goodbye.”

Baekhyun feels Sehun’s lips against his neck. He pushes back the tears that threaten him.

“I’ll tell you more when I wake, okay?” he says.

“Promise?” Baekhyun asks.

Baekhyun feels Sehun smile against his skin.

“Promise,” he says.

 

 

☽

 

 

Baekhyun knows the flowers by heart, and more importantly, he knows where to find them. He drags Sehun by the hand through the woods and the fields, gathering them into his arms.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to help?” Sehun asks, clearly amused.

“I’m sure,” he says, picking the Sparrow’s Lace and adding them to his growing bouquet. “I’m almost finished, so just be patient now.”

“You know patience is my virtue,” Sehun says, and he leans against a tree while Baekhyun searches for his next addition.

 

 

☾

 

 

They eat supper by candlelight, a pretty, romantic haze over Sehun’s face. They don’t talk much, but Baekhyun figures that’s for the best, because the darker it gets, the more he feels a sob rising in his throat. He swallows it down with his meal, focusing instead on the little smile on Sehun’s face. It’s easy to be distracted by that. Sehun is gorgeous. The prettiest Baekhyun’s ever seen.

They hold each other in bed as the night settles over them, Sehun pressing kisses to Baekhyun’s lips. His cheeks. His forehead. His nose.

“I suppose it’s time,” Sehun says once the room is totally dark.  

“Just one moment more,” Baekhyun says, and he surges up to tangle his tongue with Sehun’s. Sehun indulges him, kisses him soundly, before pushing Baekhyun back by the shoulders with a laugh on his lips.

“You’re the Healer,” Sehun says. “You’re supposed to be ordering me around, not drawing things out.”

“Well, the Lady will understand,” Baekhyun says. “She gave you a mouth made to be kissed.”

“Baekhyun,” Sehun says.

“Okay, okay,” Baekhyun says. “Stay there, then.”

Baekhyun makes their bed very carefully, Sehun resting in the dead center of it. He pulls his bluebear fur across Sehun’s body, tucks the sides around and under him. It’s still pretty, still glows after so many moons.

“You should sleep here too,” Sehun says. “I won’t mind.”

“I’ll be fine over there,” Baekhyun says. “Now you hush. And just relax.”

“I’m relaxed,” Sehun says. “Trust me.”

 _I do,_ Baekhyun thinks. _Goddess, help me, but I do._

“Are you...are you ready, then?” Baekhyun asks.

“Are you?” Sehun asks.

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun whines. “Don’t mock me.”

“I’m not mocking,” Sehun says. “I want to make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m--I’m okay,” he says. He can be strong. He _must_ be strong.

“If you really don’t want me to,” Sehun says, “I won’t.”

He knew that Sehun would do this. He knew he would make it difficult.

He gives Baekhyun the option. Lets Baekhyun make the decision. He wants with all of his heart to tell Sehun to stay, to forget the Sleep and just stay with him.

But Baekhyun knows he’s being tested, by Sehun, by the Moon Lady...maybe by the pack itself. He can be strong. He _will_ be strong. That’s the kind of omega Sehun needs, so that’s what he’ll be.

He leans down, presses a chaste kiss to Sehun’s forehead.

“Are you ready, pup?” Baekhyun asks again, voice stronger. More sure.

“I’m ready, my love,” Sehun smiles, and _Goddess_ , he’s pretty. Baekhyun doesn’t want to be a moon away from seeing that smile again. But he can be strong. He can.

Sehun sits up, and Baekhyun grabs the notched bowl from the table, the silvery liquid swirling. The room is dark, but the Sweet Sleep is bright.

“Mother,” Baekhyun says. “Father. Please protect my alpha. Guide him. Keep him safe. Show him what he needs see. And return him to me when he is finished. Moon Lady, please. I need him. I trust you. Bring him back to me, Goddess. I pray. I beg. Hear me.”

Sehun smiles.

“You changed the words,” Sehun says.

“Only a bit,” Baekhyun says.

“I liked it,” Sehun says.

Baekhyun feels tears in his eyes, but he blinks them away.

“I love you, Alpha,” Baekhyun says.

“I love you, Omega,” Sehun says, and he reaches for the bowl.

Baekhyun watches the long line of his throat work as he swallows the Sweet Sleep in three long pulls. He licks his lips when he’s finished, sweeping away the drop of silver left at the corner of his mouth with a lap of his tongue, flashing Baekhyun a dirty smile after he’s finished.

“Silly pup,” Baekhyun says, and then he helps Sehun lay back into the bed. He fixes his covers, pulls them back up around him, tucking him back in.

“I’ll see you soon,” Sehun says. “So don’t go running off with some other boy, Omega. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Baekhyun laughs wetly.

“Shut up,” Baekhyun says fondly. “I love you.”

“I love you,” Sehun echoes.

“Dream,” Baekhyun commands, and Sehun’s eyes shut. “Sleep.”

And then he’s gone, hand in hand with the Lady above. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and now him sleep zzzzz
> 
> re: chapter title. livid (as well as being an emotion) is actually a color! it is a dark blue grey. isnt that interesting! u learn something new every day
> 
> anyway, ppl told me it was ok to update quickly so i've decided to just go balls to the wall with it. two days? whom cares. i will live on the front page of exo ao3 if need be. [idol voice] please anticipate my comeback over the weekend. 
> 
> so hey thanks for reading! and thank u to all the commenters who constantly keep me writing. ur the best!!! 
> 
> my twitter is @wolfsupremacist. i have a curiouscat there. i decided to start taking requests, so if u want somethin specific, i could write somethin quick for u :') anyway! have a good night/day/life!!! love you!!!


	15. prickle-rose pink and blackberry blue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! a quick content warning for this chapter. 
> 
> i think a small part of this could perhaps be triggering for folks who have eating disorders or who are sensitive to behaviors associated with eating disorders. if you think this might apply to you, please take heed moving forward, and if you’d prefer to skip the sections where fasting is discussed, please do so: the sections will start with a ☆☽ as the divider. 
> 
> there are only two sections, neither of which are plot-driving, more character development than anything else. i've left a quick summary in the end notes, just in case you were curious but wanted to skip over the actual scene. 
> 
> i realize it may seem overly careful, given it's only about 600~ words, but i wanted to make sure not to hurt anyone unintentionally, and i want to be as accommodating as possible. ok! enough of me. pls enjoy!

Baekhyun supposes he thought that maybe it would feel more eventful, Sehun drifting off into his Sleep, but it feels like every other night when he spies on Sehun as he drifts off. He looks especially young when he’s asleep, skin soft and unblemished, eyes gentle as they twitch with dreams.

He finds his mind whirring with worry within the hour, so instead of continuing to watch, he lays his flowers on the table, pulls his legs to his chest, and tries to find sleep himself.

As the light breaks through the window, Baekhyun stretches himself awake.

He’d fallen asleep in the rocking chair, and he finds himself laid across it sideways, legs hooked over the arm. He sits up straight, a yawn on his lips, before grabbing his flowers again and clutching them to his chest.

Baekhyun rubs the haze from his eyes and sees Sehun on the bed, unchanged. Nothing will happen, of course. Watching someone Sleep is more of a ritual of dedication than anything else. Sehun will stay prostrate until the next new moon. And then he will rise like the sun. Baekhyun closes his eyes, squeezes the stems of the flowers in his fist.

He stands up abruptly and almost loses his balance. He considers sleeping on the floor tomorrow instead of in his chair.

He goes to sit next to Sehun on the bed, and he holds his hand.

 

 

☆☽

 

 

Jongdae comes in when the sun is high and full, the morning bright. He doesn’t bother to knock; he just barges in and sets a basket at the table.

“Gotta run,” he says. “I’m late.”

“Okay,” Baekhyun says, confused.

“Breakfast,” he says a bit breathlessly, gesturing to the basket. “I’m on breakfast, Yeol’s on lunch. Myeon’s got dinner.”

“I don’t need all this,” Baekhyun scoffs. “I’m fasting.”

“What do you mean?” Jongdae says.

“I’m fasting,” Baekhyun says again, not sure how he could be any clearer.

“You don’t need to fast,” Jongdae frowns. “That’s unnecessary.”

Baekhyun frowns back.

“I’m serious,” Jongdae says. “No fasting.”

“Just for the first week,” Baekhyun says. “Please?”

“No fasting,” Jongdae repeats. “I mean it.”

And then he’s running back out of the house, off to work.

 

 

☾

 

 

Baekhyun doesn’t quite know what to do with himself for the rest of the day. Mostly, he sits in silence. A morning, an afternoon has never passed so slowly, even with Chanyeol interrupting his thoughts to deliver him lunch. He’s not sure what he’s feeling: some lingering guilt, some nerves. Some hope, too. He decides to ruminate on it for the evening.

The knock on the door is so loud that it makes Baekhyun jump. He sets his flowers down on the table, shooting a furtive glance back to Sehun on the bed before walking to open the door.

“Here,” his mother says, and she shoves a couple skeins of yarn into his hands.

“What am I to do with this?” Baekhyun says.

The night will fall soon, and work for the day must be wrapping up around now. Baekhyun is surprised to see her so early. She usually dawdles at the Healer’s House, waiting for stragglers.

“Knit. So you keep your hands and head busy,” she says. “So you don’t think too much.”

All Baekhyun can do is think now, but he schools himself carefully, a calm settling in his bones the way clouds shift to cover the sun.

“Thank you,” he says. “I’ll make you something pretty. A scarf, maybe.”

She scoffs.

“Brown snout,” she accuses before she kisses him on the forehead and takes her leave.

 

 

☆☽

 

 

Junmyeon comes not much later.

“Hello, Baekhyun,” he says pleasantly. “How was your day?”

“Rather uneventful, if you could imagine,” Baekhyun says, sitting at the table with flowers in his hand. He looks pointedly back at Sehun on the bed.

“I could imagine,” Junmyeon agrees, standing over Baekhyun. He starts to unpack the basket and fixes him a plate, dishes filled with a sugar-grass and snap pea salad, roasted rabbit and walnut hand pies, and a slice of some type of berry tart. It all smells so wonderful. And even though it’s only been a day since he’s eaten, his mouth waters at the sight of it all. “Tuck in, Omega.”

He sits himself down, watches Baekhyun intently.

“What are you doing?” Baekhyun asks.

“Making sure that you eat,” Junmyeon says.

“I’ll eat,” Baekhyun lies. “I’m just not very hungry right now.”

“Is that so?” Junmyeon asks, leaning forward on his elbows, his chin in his hands. Baekhyun hates that.

“It is,” Baekhyun says uneasily.

“Because _I_ heard,” Junmyeon starts, “from my good friend Jongdae, you remember Jongdae, don’t you? I heard from Jongdae that you were planning to fast.”

“Strange,” Baekhyun says, picking at his fingernails. “Wonder where he got that idea.”

“And _Jongdae_ said that he thought I should stay,” Junmyeon says, “to make sure you ate. Because _Jongdae_ reckoned that as soon as he and Chanyeol left, you’d immediately get rid of the food because no one was watching you.”

“Seems like a crazy idea,” Baekhyun says.

“Does it now?” Junmyeon says.

“It does,” Baekhyun says.

“And why’s that?” Junmyeon asks.

“Because I’ve definitely eaten today,” Baekhyun lies again.

And then the playful teasing is gone from Junmyeon.

“Eat, Baekhyun,” he orders. “This is silly.”

“It’s _not,_ ” Baekhyun says.

“You’ve no need to fast,” Junmyeon says.

“How do we gain favor?” Baekhyun asks.

“Baekhyun, I’m not doing this with you,” Junmyeon says. “You need to eat, I promised Sehun I would take care of you.”

“If we make a sacrifice, then we gain favor,” Baekhyun says, ignoring Junmyeon entirely. “Fasting is a sacrifice.”

“Baekhyun,” Junmyeon says. “Please.”

“Don’t you think it would help?” Baekhyun asks. “Doesn’t it make sense?”

“You’re doing enough,” Junmyeon says gently.

“I can do this, though,” Baekhyun says.

“You don’t _need_ to,” Junmyeon says. “He’s fine. The Lady has him. She’s taking care of him. You don’t need to gain her favor. Sehunnie already has it.”

Baekhyun considers it: Sehun. Tall. Beautiful. Strong of spirit. Gentle of heart. Of course he must hold her favor.

Junmyeon nudges the plate of greens towards Baekhyun, smiling when he begrudgingly starts to eat.

 

 

☾

 

 

Baekhyun does leave the cabin, but only when totally necessary, and only when someone is holding his watch for him. Sometimes it’s Sehun’s fathers, who come for visits after work. Sometimes it’s Jongdae before he leaves breakfast with Baekhyun, other times it’s Chanyeol on his break. He trusts them, of course, but it does make his teeth ache. He never wants to leave, but sometimes he _has_ to.

He bathes in the river, scrubbing himself clean with an efficiency not previously known to him, and it’s impossible not to think about his memories with Sehun here. The way they laughed. The way they kissed. The way they fucked.

He shakes it off, rinses the soap in his hair and the thoughts in his head away.

 

 

☽

 

 

Suns rise, and suns fall. The Father passes the Lady, and she passes him in turn. Baekhyun watches, and he waits.

He knits. A scarf for his mother, just like he promised, although it’s not nearly as pretty as he said it would be. He struggles to get the hang of the pattern, so it ends up a bit bumpy. She likes it all the same, kissing him on the cheek for his troubles.

After that, he sets his sights on a scarf for Sehun, the yarn dyed a pretty pink from the petals of the prickle-rose. It’ll look so nice on him in the winter, Baekhyun thinks, matching his cheeks all pinked from the cold.

Baekhyun ends up knitting scarves for Sehun’s fathers too, matching in indigo.

“These are beautiful, Baekhyun,” the Omega says happily. “You shouldn’t have.”

“It was nothing,” he shrugs. “Takes my mind off things.”

“You can always call us,” the Alpha says. “If it ever gets to be too much. We’d be more than happy to spend more time up here.”  

“No, no,” Baekhyun says. “I’ve got it.”

They share a look, one of those looks between long-time mates that Baekhyun’s seen before, seen his parents share.

“He’s lucky to have you,” the Omega says, a hand clasped on Baekhyun’s shoulder.

Baekhyun doesn’t mention that he’s the lucky one, just allows himself to be pulled into a hug, one he desperately, but unknowingly, needed.

 

 

☾

 

 

“There we go,” Baekhyun says, opening the window. “That’s better.”

More often than not, Baekhyun talks to Sehun. At this point, he doesn’t realize he’s doing it, so when it earns strange looks from Chanyeol or Jongdae, he tries to tamp it down. Other than those times, when he’s with someone else, he speaks freely.

“There’s a nice breeze today,” he says, and he closes his eyes at the feeling of the wind in his hair. “This is your favorite kind of day.”

Baekhyun wishes Sehun was awake so he could see it: a perfectly sunny spring day, light breeze. Hot enough to make you sweat a bit, a breeze to cool you off. _River weather_ , Sehun calls it.

“I miss you, you know,” Baekhyun says. It feels silly even to think, let alone say aloud. He used to go moons at a time without speaking to Sehun, but now...now it’s so different. Now it feels strange to wake up alone, strange not to hear Sehun’s morning baritone rumbling in his chest. Strange not to fall asleep in someone’s arms, not to hear Sehun hum as they settle together.

Strange not to hold someone’s hand.

They’re only half way through. He’s been keeping track of the Lady.

He sits back down in his rocking chair, flowers in a little vase next to him, setting off to make a scarf for Junmyeon next.

 

 

☽

 

 

Baekhyun can’t knit all day, everyday, however. First, he gets frustrated easily, especially when he has to go back and fix a mistake. He’s never been the most patient wolf in the world.

Second, it only serves as a distraction for so long.

“Why don’t you write?” Chanyeol offers from across the table, gnawing on a piece of dried venison.

“Write what?” Baekhyun asks.

“I don’t know,” Chanyeol says. “I think the writer is supposed to figure that bit out.”

“Very funny,” Baekhyun says, and he chucks the nearest object he can get his hands on at Chanyeol’s head.

 

 

☾

 

 

Pen in hand later that evening, Baekhyun supposes he owes Chanyeol an apology.

He scratches out little things to himself as he watches Sehun. No arc, not really anything at all. Just a sketch, more like.

 _He is the servant of the Lady,_ he writes. _He wears no wings, though they’d look as natural on him as sweetgrass looks in the field. He has no Father’s halo atop his head, but he needs no crown._

He taps the edge of the pen against his leg. Watches the little kisses of ink bleed and fracture on his skin.

 _I am in love with this servant, and though he is humble, he is beautiful,_ Baekhyun writes. _I love him. I love him._

He doesn’t know what he’s doing, just beholds Sehun and writes whatever pretty words come to his head. Words he think Sehun would like.

 _When I call his name, I hope he hears music,_ he writes. _When I kiss his skin, I hope he feels fire. And when he opens his eyes again, I hope he sees me, and when he sees me, I hope he sees light._

 

 

☽

 

 

When the pretty words run dry, he writes letters. He fills page after page, journaling his thoughts and thinking how silly they will all sound when Sehun reads them after he wakes.

 _Sehun-ah,_ he writes.

_The night has just fallen, and to be quite honest, it’s very romantic. I am writing by candlelight._

_Remember the candles that Minseok made for us? The ones that smell like the wintermint? The whole house smells fresh now. It will keep me awake for a while now, I feel._

_You look quite nice today. For a moment, I thought I saw you smile. It must have been a trick of the light, but it made me feel good. I miss seeing you smile, my love._

_You’ll call me soft when you read this, but I don’t mind. I’ve always been a bit soft towards you, and your Sleep has only made me softer. I can’t find it in myself to care._

_The moon is cut in half again above me now. I will have you back in seven suns or so._

_I love you. I miss you. I can barely stand it, but when no one is around, I’ll kiss your forehead and take your hand in mine, and I remember. I trust you with this. I trust you with anything._

_Yours,_ he finishes, _Baekhyun._

 

 

☾

 

 

_Your fathers watched over you while I went to the river today. They’re well. I’m sure you’d like to know that, so there it is. They’re quite well, actually. Their spirits always seem lifted, which always lifts my spirits in turn. Reminds me of you._

_I like them so much. They’re always so kind to me. It makes sense, of course. They raised the kindest son._

_I bathed you once I got back. It felt good, touching you. After getting so used to your affections, it’s been difficult to be without them. I haven’t...since you started your Sleep. I’m saving it for you. For when you wake. It will be so good, I know it._

_With supper, Junmyeon brought you the first strawberry, barely ripe, still tinged with white. He says it’s good luck, so I thanked him for you. You’re so polite, I figured you’d want me to since you couldn’t._

_To be quite honest, Sehun-ah, I don’t really know what to do with it, and while I’m trying to work on our communication skills, I can’t seem to get an answer from you. Tell me what to do with it, or I fear it may drive me mad. For now, I will keep it and let it ripen._

 

 

☽

 

 

_I finished Junmyeon’s scarf today, and when I gave it to him, he nearly crushed my ribs hugging me. I think he misses you almost as much as I do._

_Would you like to know about your gift? The strawberry is pretty and red now._

_I still don’t know what to do with it. It seems rude to eat a gift meant for you, but letting it sit at your bedside to rot seems like a bad omen. I’ll think more on it._

_I hope you’re watching something pretty right now. I can’t wait to hear all the stories of what you’ve seen, love._

 

 

☾

 

 

_It rained all day long today, a great crackling storm. I’m happy to report that the roof held well. No leaks in sight. You did such a good job, Alpha. I’m so proud of you._

_I can’t wait to speak with you again. It feels like it’s been so many moons. You had it so easy, you little puppy. I can’t wait to hold this over your head for the rest of our lives._

_Also, since you might want to know, I ate the strawberry. I hope you don’t mind, pup._

 

 

☽

 

 

_I’ve not been sleeping very well. And I know what you’ll say, you silly boy, so when you read this, don’t bother looking at me with those big sad eyes. I’ve thought about taking the violet ale to help, but any time I so much as smell the violets, I think of you._

_And I can barely breathe with how much I miss you, puppy._

_Tell the Lady to give you back. I’m cross with her for taking so long._

_Junmyeon noticed that the strawberry was gone and whacked me over the head, but then he felt bad, so he said he’s going to make a strawberry rhubarb pie for when you wake. I think you would be proud._

_It’s soon. I’ve been watching. Soon, Sehun-ah. Soon._

 

 

☾

 

 

The last half of the moon cuts away slowly, slower than Baekhyun can ever imagine it happening in past.

“It should be tomorrow,” Junmyeon says.

“Goddess, it’s taking forever,” Baekhyun responds.

“You only think that because you’re waiting for something,” Junmyeon says. “Any other time, it would feel normal.”

“I don’t know,” Baekhyun says around a mouthful of mashed potatoes. “Feels slow.”

“I’m _telling_ you it isn’t,” Junmyeon laughs. “Hard head.”

“You’re mean,” Baekhyun says. “I’m struggling!”

“You seem like you’re in a pretty good mood today, actually,” Junmyeon notes.

Baekhyun ducks his head, smiles.

“Excited to get him back?” Junmyeon asks.

“You have no idea.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (summaries  
> scene 1: the morning after sehun begins his sleep, jongdae drops breakfast off with baekhyun, explaining that he is tasked with delivering breakfast for the month, while chanyeol is tasked with lunch, junmyeon with dinner. baekhyun tells jongdae that he is planning on fasting and thus doesn't require meals for a week, but jongdae tells him that it's unnecessary. jongdae leaves in a hurry, late for work.  
> scene 2: junmyeon brings dinner not long after baekhyun's mother drops off the knitting supplies. he sets out a plate for baekhyun and watches expectantly. baekhyun tries to deflect, but junmyeon confronts baekhyun, letting him know that jongdae told him that baekhyun was planning on fasting. baekhyun tells junmyeon that he was fasting in order to gain favor with the goddess. they argue back and forth for a bit before baekhyun relents and gives up his fasting.) 
> 
> ok i hope that wasnt too annoying aksjdkjg 
> 
> anyway! sleep nearly over! next one is the big one! i love reading ur comments and ur theories and im so touched by the response ive gotten. youre all so amazing. as always, my self-promo: twitter @wolfsupremacist, ask me questions, share this fic with ur friends!!!! or ur enemies! idc. love you all, have a good day/afternoon/evening


	16. black, blue, and bruised

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tags have been updated

When Baekhyun awakes, he is not in his home. It is a pitch black space, shining with streaks of navy and cerulean, which feels strangely familiar. It’s jarring, this place. He feels lightheaded, as if he’s fainted or is about to faint. He steadies himself, pinches his wrist.

And then, from the darkness, Sehun emerges.

“My--Sehun,” Baekhyun says, and tears spring to his eyes unbidden.

“Baekhyunnie,” Sehun says fondly, and he takes Baekhyun in his arms. “Omega, I’ve missed you.”

“Shut up,” Baekhyun says. “Shut up. You have no idea how I’ve missed you.”

“How long has it been?” Sehun asks. “Feels like forever.”

“You’re almost through,” Baekhyun says. “Before I fell asleep last night, Junmyeon told me that the new moon was supposed to be tomorrow.”

“Ah,” Sehun says, “good.”

“Has it been hard?” Baekhyun asks. “What have you seen?”

“You haven’t seen it too?” Sehun asks.

“No,” Baekhyun says and for a moment, he’s so jealous of Sehun, getting to watch Baekhyun’s Sleep. “I’ve just been watching you. And you’re not much for entertaining in this state, I can tell you that.”

“That’s a shame,” Sehun says. “I’ve seen such pretty things.”

“Yeah?” Baekhyun says, hopeful. “What kind of pretty things?”

“Ah,” Sehun says. “So many pretty things.”

He strokes a hand through Baekhyun’s hair, and the casualness of it catches in Baekhyun’s throat. He didn’t quite understand how much he’d missed things like that. He thought he understood, but he didn’t.

“I saw when you became Head Healer,” Sehun says.

“What? Me?” Baekhyun asks incredulously.

“You,” Sehun confirms. “You didn’t look too much older than you do now. I watched as your mother stepped down. She put a crown of the red poppies on your head. And she bowed to you. You cried.”

“I did not,” Baekhyun says. “I don’t cry.”

Sehun laughs, and it sets Baekhyun’s heart fluttering in his rib-cage.

“Ah, let’s see, what else,” Sehun says, before pressing a kiss to Baekhyun’s hair. “I saw when you were with child.”

“A puppy?” Baekhyun says.

“Yeah,” Sehun says fondly, patting Baekhyun’s stomach. “Right there. You were glowing. I’ve never seen you so pretty.”

“How far along was I?” Baekhyun asks.

“About to burst,” Sehun laughs. “But you were still trying to fuck me.”

“You’re joking,” Baekhyun says, slapping him quickly. “Quit it.”

“Swear to the Lady,” Sehun says, a hand across his heart.

“Quit it,” Baekhyun repeats. “I don’t wanna hear this.”

“Really?” Sehun asks. “You don’t wanna hear about how eager you were for it? How you held me down and rode my knot until you came?”

“Sehun!” Baekhyun says, and he slaps Sehun’s shoulder again.

“You’re the one who wanted to hear what I saw,” Sehun says.

“I thought it would be _nice_ things,” Baekhyun says, “not _filthy_ things.”

“You wanna hear something nice?” Sehun asks.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun says, cuddling back into Sehun’s chest. “Something sweet.”

“I saw us Tied,” Sehun whispers. “You looked so beautiful. You had your hair in this messy braid, with the little whisper-breath flowers stuck in it. You made us both crowns of the bell-root. You looked...Goddess, I don’t think I ever felt more in love with you.”

“More,” Baekhyun says. “Tell me more.”

“I’ll tell you more when I wake,” Sehun says. “How about that?”

One sun. He could make it one sun.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun agreed. “When you wake.”

 

 

☽

 

 

Baekhyun opens his eyes and sees the familiar dressings of the cabin. He immediately grabs his flowers from the table next to him, and then he looks to the bed. Sees Sehun still, unchanging. He wonders if it was just a dream. Just a beautiful, vivid dream.

He rubs the sleep from his eyes and goes to get changed for the day. _Either way,_ he thinks, he thanks the Lady for it. Not everyone is so lucky.

 

 

☾

 

 

“Tonight’s the night, huh?” Jongdae says, a basket full of breakfast picked through at the table.

“It is,” Baekhyun says, and he’s so jittery that he could barely eat, Jongdae eating the wolf’s share of the meal.  

“What’s the first thing you’re gonna do?” Jongdae asks, mouth still full of food. “When he wakes?”

“Suck his cock, I expect,” Baekhyun says.

“Oh, Goddess,” Jongdae says, choking down his mouthful. “You are disgusting.”

“You asked,” Baekhyun laughs.

“Really, though,” Jongdae says. “You already mated. You’re already marked. You already have a hut, you’ve already lived together for some moons. What more is there to do?”

 _Everything,_ Baekhyun thinks.

“Try to have a puppy,” he says.

“Really?” Jongdae says. “You?”

“What’s that supposed to mean, _me_?” Baekhyun says. “As if I’m incapable of raising a pup.”

“Not _incapable_ ,” Jongdae says. “Just very averse to the idea in the past.”

Baekhyun stares at Sehun on the bed. Imagines him a father. A child in his arms.

“I’m not so averse anymore,” Baekhyun says.

“You know,” Jongdae says, “I’m really proud of you. And I can’t wait to see your little monster, whenever they come.”

Baekhyun stands up to slap Jongdae, only to get the ring of his laughter in response. He gathers the remains of their meal up in his basket.

“Well, I’ll leave you to your emotional and no doubt _dirty_ reunion,” Jongdae smirks, and he turns his back to Baekhyun, about to walk down the hill back to the rest of the camp.

Baekhyun’s hand shoots out before he can even think about it, and he grabs Jongdae by the wrist. Jongdae turns back to face him.

“Baekhyun?” he says.

“Will you stay with me tonight?” Baekhyun asks carefully.

Jongdae’s features, normally so sharp, soften so much that it puts a lump in Baekhyun’s throat. He swallows around it quickly.

“Yes,” Jongdae says. “I’ll be right outside. All night, okay? I’ll get here quick after sundown.”

“Okay,” Baekhyun says, and Jongdae hugs him.  

Then, Baekhyun watches as Jongdae walks outside. Baekhyun grabs his flowers and sits back in the rocking chair, watching over Sehun once more.

 

 

☽

 

 

He doesn’t do much, that final day. He sits, watches. Waits.

“I miss you,” Baekhyun says, and it sounds silly even to his own ears. The room stays silent, save for him. “I didn’t realize how much I would miss you. I knew it would be hard, of course, but I couldn’t--couldn’t fathom it, truly. Never did I think it would be this hard. Being without you.”

He breathes in.

“I know you’ll come back,” he says. “She wouldn’t let us see each other if she wasn’t going to give you back to me. You’ll come back to me. I can feel it.”

And he can. It courses through him. The light of the spring dance keeps his heart yellow and green with hope. With _faith_.

“I’ll never let anything happen to you,” Baekhyun promises. “When you wake, for the rest of our lives, I’ll protect you with my life. I’ll give you everything you’ve ever wanted and more. No one... _nothing_ will ever be able to keep us apart.”

Sehun’s body is so still, but the subtle rise of his chest is heartening.

“I was scared,” Baekhyun says. “I mean, this is what I was always afraid of, I think. It wasn’t the commitment. It wasn’t the mating or the pups or anything like that. Not really. I was always afraid of losing. Loving something, _someone,_ with my whole heart, and then having them stolen from me. Taken from me. Powerless to it.”

The light streams into the room, and Sehun’s skin shines with sweat. Baekhyun sets the flowers down on the table next to him and walks over to wipe Sehun’s forehead clean.

“Maybe that’s what the Sleep is about,” Baekhyun says, cupping Sehun’s cheek in his hand. “Maybe that’s what _love_ is about. Trusting someone enough to let them leave. Knowing they’ll come back to you.”

Baekhyun presses a kiss to his forehead.

“I know you’ll come back,” he repeats. “Come back to me, Sehun-ah.”

 

 

☾

 

 

He watches the moon from the window. He can barely see it, black and new, but he squints his eyes to watch it.

 _Soon_ , he thinks. Soon, he’ll have his love back again. Soon, Sehun will wrap his arms around Baekhyun again. Soon, Sehun will make a silly joke upon his waking and Baekhyun will laugh even though it won’t be funny. Soon, he thinks. Soon.

He waits. He waits, waits, waits.

The wait leads to more wait. It seems never-ending. He smiles through it. _Soon_ , he thinks.

And the longer he waits, the harder the waiting gets.

Rehearsed, practiced calm turns stale and sour in his mouth as the moon climbs higher and higher.

Time ticks on. Baekhyun waits, waits, waits.

And then, without grandiosity or bravado, without pretense or warning, the black moon starts to fall, and with it, Baekhyun’s heart.

He blinks hard, thinking he must be mistaken. A trick of the light. A false vision, he thinks. It must be.   

 _No_ , he thinks, chancing a glance at Sehun’s unmoving body. _No_.

But the moon moves, silent. Unaffected.

The moon doesn’t listen to him, doesn’t listen to anyone.

 _No,_ he thinks all the same. _Not this. Not when I bear his mark and he bears mine. Not when he called to me. The Moon Lady wouldn’t. Sehun must be behind all this. He must be fooling._

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun says, a hand at Sehun’s shoulder. “Wake. Come on. Wake. Don’t make jokes now. My poor heart can’t take it.”

The room stays silent. Dead winter. Water that sits. Sick, cruel silence. He feels himself falling into prophecy, a dark hole that he wants to claw his way out from.  

“Sehun,” Baekhyun says, hand more insistent as the panic starts to flood him, fill his lungs like river water. “Alpha. _Alpha._ ”

Baekhyun presses his fingers up against his pulse. Slow. And slowing. _Fuck._

He runs out of the house, sees Jongdae sitting against the house with tired eyes. When he sees Baekhyun burst through the door, he jolts and worry sits plain on his face.

“Run,” Baekhyun yells. “Get my mother.”

Jongdae moves like wind, like rain. It only takes him a couple minutes. When Baekhyun sees his mother rushing back up the hill, he breathes out. She will fix this. She fixes everything.

“Where is he?” she asks.

Baekhyun leads her through the house, shows her to their bed.

She leans over Sehun, lays her fingers to Sehun’s pulse just as Baekhyun had done. She waits.

And then she shuts her eyes.

He didn’t think his heart had any room to drop further, but he was wrong; it plummets through the floorboards, into the earth. Into the cold, unforgiving hands of the Mother.

“You can do something, right?” Baekhyun says anxiously. “There has to be something. Some plant or...or some kind of tea. Or the Cure Coal. You have something for this, right?"

“Baekhyun,” she says gently, sadly.

“Save him,” Baekhyun says, staring at Sehun’s body, the life leaking out of him like blood spilling out over the bed. He turns to his mother, standing stock still. “What are you doing? You have to save him!”

“My child,” she says sadly.

He crosses to her, fists his hands in her shirt, and he shakes her, desperate. She’s the Healer. She’s the Head Healer. Surely she has a way to fix this. Surely she has a way to help. Why isn’t she doing anything, he wonders. Why is she just standing there? Why is she letting them plummet into this nightmare? Why isn’t she waking Sehun? Why isn’t she waking Baekhyun?

“Save him!” he says.

“He’s gone, my son,” she says, and he watches in horror as a tear spills onto her face when she shuts her eyes.

 _No,_ he thinks. _You said. You said it wouldn’t happen. You told me he wouldn’t fall. You said I wouldn’t know this pain._

“Save him,” Baekhyun whimpers. “You can, can’t you? Please. _Save him_.”

“There’s nothing we can do,” his mother says sadly.

“Mama, _please_ ,” he cries. “Please. Not him.”

She crushes Baekhyun to her chest, and suddenly, he is a puppy again. He is lost. Every part of him aches, and his throat feels as if it's ripping apart as he tries to hold back the wails of despair.

“I need him,” Baekhyun says, and his face is wet with the tears that won’t stop. “Mama, I _need_ him. Tell her I need him.”

“Baekhyun,” she says, and his heart, oh, his heart. It’s empty. It’s shattered into shards so small that they’ll never be put back together. He had hope, had _so much_ hope that the Goddess would see them and know that they belong together. Know that Baekhyun can’t live without him.

He thinks back to the last words he said to Sehun, in the Sleep space. _More,_ he’d begged. _More._ He thought the Lady wanted to reassure them, tell him that it would all be okay.

It wasn’t reassurance. It was his chance to say goodbye.

And even then, he was greedy.

 

 

☽

 

 

His mother holds him for hours as he cries, and he slumps against her, all the fight gone. He shouldn’t have let it happen. He should have listened to his dream. He was right all along. He was the cursed one, and he dragged Sehun down with him: Sehun with his pure heart and the light in his eyes. Baekhyun dragged him down. He made Sehun fall.

He sobs hard, his whole body racked with guilt.

He can’t stop thinking. Can’t stop remembering. The way Sehun smiled. The way he laughed. His easy loyalty. The way he could say something and set Baekhyun’s stomach turning with joy.

 _Fuck,_ Baekhyun thinks. _Fuck._ He’ll never have something so good again. He’ll never love again. They had so much time, Sehun’s whole life, and Baekhyun wasted nearly all of it. He’ll never love again. He won’t.

“Puppy,” she says, wiping at his cheeks. “The sun’s almost up. You need to rest. Come home with me. Sleep there.”

“I don’t...I don’t want to,” he says. “I don’t want to leave him.”

“You need your rest,” she says. “Please, Baekhyun. I’ll give you the violet ale. It will help. Just come with me.”

He would rather die than drink the violet ale. He’ll never look at another sleeping violet again. He’ll burn the patch at the Northern border, and he’ll break every bottle of ale in the stores. He’ll scrub himself raw, morning, noon, and night, until he smells like nothing at all.

“I’m not going,” he says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading  
> chapter 17 will be up on wednesday, around 8pm EST


	17. rust, renaissance

When his mother takes the long walk back to his adolescent home, she does so alone.

Baekhyun crawls onto the bed, and he raises the covers and Sehun’s arm too before tucking himself alongside Sehun’s body, cuddled into him, the furs thrown back overtop them both.

 _I should have done this more,_ he thinks. _I should have just held him more. I never should have let him go._

He bawls until he can’t anymore, until his mouth is dry and the tears won’t come any longer. He sits up and kisses Sehun’s lips, wishing that Sehun would wake to kiss him back. Mouth eager. Eyes open and bright.

 _Wake up,_ he begs silently. _Wake. Lady, let him come back. I’ll forgive you if you let him come back._

But his pleas for mercy yield nothing. He knew they wouldn’t.

 _I miss you so much,_ he thinks, hoping Sehun can hear him. _Don’t leave me here alone._

After he can’t stomach it anymore, Baekhyun covers Sehun again with the bluebear pelt, raised to the pits of his arms, stretched over his chest. Baekhyun folds Sehun’s hands, one over the other, delicate on his breastbone. He looks beautiful. He always did.

 

 

☽

 

 

Sehun’s fathers come at dawn, and their eyes are rimmed with red, glassy wet.

“I’m sorry,” he says, and his voice wavers as he starts to cry again. “I’m sorry I didn’t save him.”

The alpha and omega, the men who gave Baekhyun the best thing he’s ever known, hold him in their arms. He should have given them grandchildren. Instead, he took from them, took their only son from them, and he has nothing to show for it.

“You took great care of him,” the alpha says. “Thank you.”

Baekhyun cries harder. He doesn’t deserve this comfort. He should be comforting them. There is nothing worse than what they are dealing with. The sickest cruelty the Moon Lady could dream up is a parent forced to bury a child.

“Thank you for giving him to me,” Baekhyun says. “I wish I could have protected him.”

“Baekhyun,” the alpha says. “You did all you could.”

“He loved you so much,” the omega says.

And Baekhyun is being selfish, selfish like he always is, but he doesn’t want to hear it from Sehun’s father. He doesn’t want it framed in the past. _Loved_. Fuck _loved._ He wants to hear that Sehun _loves_ him, and he wants to hear it from Sehun himself.

“We’ll bury him tonight,” the alpha says.

“Please,” Baekhyun says. “Not yet.”

“Baekhyun,” the omega says, a hand gentle at his back.

“Just one more day,” Baekhyun says. “I need him here with me.”

“The Fertile Mother called him home,” the omega says, voice shaking. “He belongs with Her now.”

 _No,_ Baekhyun thinks, _he belongs with me. Now and always._

 

 

☾

 

 

No one comes the rest of the day. Their pack’s mourning is traditional. Structured. Baekhyun had never given it much thought before, never had to deal with loss in his adult life. Never considered himself being the one in isolation. In quiet contemplation.

He does little more than weep. Can’t seem to stop the flood or stem the tide.

When the stink of his misery gets to be too much, even for him, he opens the door to get some fresh air inside the house.

At his feet, there are piles of fresh flowers and fruits, more than Baekhyun ever thought he would see. The pack cries with him. It should be unsurprising: the loss of a young, healthy, beautiful alpha is tragic. But it steals Baekhyun’s breath all the same.

He walks back, and he sits on the bed next to Sehun.

“They love you,” he whispers as he crushes his body to Sehun’s. “They love you so much. But they’ll never love you more than me.”

 

 

☽

 

 

He wonders. He thinks. 

_Will I let this kill me?_

_Will this be the end of me?_

Baekhyun lays himself down at the foot of the bed, hands and knees and forehead on the charred wood floor.

_How can I pray to a Goddess who won’t listen to me?_

_How can I believe in the power, the love that She refuses to show me?_

He watches the swirls and gnarls, the knots in the wood, as tears fall from his face and gloss the surface.

What has he done to deserve this?

Sadness has given way to anger, and it pools in his stomach as he submits before the Goddess he wants to throw away, prays to her even if he doesn't believe. If anyone could hear his thoughts, they would slap him on the hands. It’s profane. It’s blasphemous. And Baekhyun can’t help himself.

 _No,_ he thinks. _Not again._

He won’t let himself fall to self-absorption the way he let Sehun fall to Sleep. The world is greater than him, is greater than his pain, no matter how big, how all-encompassing it feels.  

“Please,” he prays aloud. “Help him rest. He deserves peace. He was the best wolf I ever knew. He was...he was perfect.”

“I’ve...I’ve never been the best at this sort of thing,” Baekhyun says. “I’ve never been the most subservient or the most obedient, but I’m grateful to you, Goddess. I...I’m angry, I can’t pretend that I’m not, but I am grateful. Thank you for giving him to me, for letting me know him at all.”

He shuts his eyes, and more tears fall to the floor.

“I don’t know why you had to take him,” he says. “I won’t ever know why. It hurts so badly. It hurts...it aches. I can feel him missing. But I have faith. I _do._ I know you will take care of him. I pray you will. I’ll do anything to make it so. And please, give me strength to go on. Goddess, I've never felt so weak.”

Baekhyun lifts himself up off the floor with sore knees before he crosses back across the room, and he sits on the bed next to Sehun.

 

 

☾

 

 

He sits on the bed next to Sehun, pen in hand, and he writes his final letter.

_He was a servant to the Lady. His wings were joy. His crown was the setting sun._

_He was my tutor, and he was my student. Our lessons were love, and the way we taught each other felt like magic, like the pink light of the fireflies pressed against your skin, like rain storms overflowing rivers and lakes. Suns stretched on and on when he was in my arms, and we could have had a small forever had I not let him go._

_I could have built a home in his heart, and if he bled, I would have patched the holes with my hands. I could have carried him on my back or in my arms to protect his feet from the thorns.  I could have tied a rope around his waist, around his wrists, and when he lifted off the ground, I would have laid my body in the earth to keep him._

_But angels must fly. This, I know._

_This was the story of us._

_Two souls, twin souls, found each other amidst the thunder and lightning. He and I. The boy made of gold kissed me and put amethysts in my hands. He sipped silver and painted his body gleaming, shivering grey. I put coal in my mouth, and while I waited for him, I spit out diamond. But I was left with nothing when he was beckoned back from whence he came. My lungs went black, and the ash poured from my mouth. The diamonds were gone, crushed and glittering, and they fell from my eyes._

_This was the story of us._

_No, this_ is _the story of us._

_For as long as I breathe, it will breathe too. When I breathe in flowers, our story will breathe out music. When I breathe in the winters, you, my love, you will breathe out the summers. When my heart beats, our love will echo through the valley, long. Proud. And it will reverberate through our small forever, a forever that lives on with me._

_A forever that we will stitch with the next, my love, when I meet you once more._

He puts the pen down. Wipes at his eyes before the tears drip onto the page and make the ink run.

 

 

☽

 

 

He sits on the bed next to Sehun, and he watches the moon start to rise high above them. The barest sliver of white light in the sky.

“They’re coming soon,” Baekhyun says. “Junmyeon and Jongin and Chanyeol and Jongdae are going to carry you. They won’t let me help. I think they think I’ll drop you.”

He coughs out something close to a laugh, wondering if Sehun would have laughed too.

“The pack is going to sing for you,” Baekhyun says. “I’ll make sure it’s _Whispers of the Winter Wind_. I know that was your favorite. Remember? When we were puppies? And you dropped out of that tree into the river to surprise me? You were so young. And I remember you were singing _Whispers_ as you splashed at me. I ran away and tattled on you to your parents, but...but it was nice. It was so cute. And I’ll never forget it.”

Baekhyun’s mouth is parched, his lips cracking, and he remembers that he hasn’t eaten or drank since his breakfast with Jongdae the previous day. Maybe he cried himself dry.

“They’re going to bury you near the mountain,” he continues. “I think you’d like that. It’s...you always liked the mountain run. You’ll be able to see the Lady dance every new spring. And before, I...I wanted us to be by the violets, but...I don’t know. I don’t know if I want to see them anymore. It hurts too much.”

He goes quiet again. Stares at Sehun’s body. He has to look away for a moment, too overwhelmed, but the room is so imbued with memory that no matter where he looks, he sees Sehun. Sees them together. Sees their bodies tangled together. Sees their conversations. Sees their dreams. Sees the violets.

Sees what should have come of the two of them. Sees the visions, the prophecies that should have come to pass.

“I’m going to...I’m going to make sure to take good care of your fathers,” Baekhyun says. “And I’ll take care of them when they get old. I’ll keep them safe. So don’t worry about them. Don’t worry about anything. Rest easily. Rest with peace in your heart, my love.”

How, he wonders, can he still be able to cry? After all this?

“If there is an afterlife, I will meet you there,” Baekhyun says, his last few tears slipping down his face. “We’ll be together forever. Wait for me. Please. Just wait.”

Very carefully, Baekhyun lays out everything that will be buried with Sehun. The dried flowers that he held in his hands for a moon, the flowers that mean luck, health, life. The letters he wrote, bound with twine. A crown of freshly picked bell-root to rest on his head, still ringing.

He strips the furs back from Sehun’s body, undresses him purposefully. Quietly. He takes the bowl of prickle-rose water from the table and wrings the cloth in it. He sweeps the cloth over Sehun’s skin, washes him diligently. The water gives his skin a pretty pink look. Like blood still courses through him.

Sehun was so perfect, every inch of him sculpted like art. He should have grown old. He should have lived. Goddess, he should have lived.

Soon, the air smells like the prickle-rose, and it’s better, smells much better than Baekhyun’s distress. He rests his hands on Sehun’s.

“I love you,” he says. And that’s good. That will be the last thing he says. That’s all he needs Sehun to know.

He looks through the window. The new moon has passed. Now, she waxes. A pretty little crescent like the smile of Sehun’s eyes. Baekhyun smiles at the thought.

He makes to turn to grab the cloth, the gauzy material he’s been instructed to wrap Sehun in before he wraps him in furs.

But one long gasp splinters through everything, through time. Through Baekhyun’s heart. Splinters through the room like a knife.

A sudden breath. A sharp breath. _Life_.

Baekhyun almost jumps at the sound, and he _tries_ to jump back when Sehun’s fingers tangle with his, but Sehun holds him there. Skin still so frighteningly cold.  

“Goddess,” Baekhyun prays, eyes closed, squeezed shut so tight his ears ring and he sees stars in the black. “Goddess, please let it be real. Please, Goddess. Give him back to me. Please. I pray.”

Baekhyun tries to pull away, but he can’t. Sehun holds him tight.

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun says, and his whole body quakes: in fear that it’s a trick, in desperation that it isn’t, in _hope_ that the Goddess has heard him. “Wake for me. Wake, Sehun-ah. Alpha, please.”

And Sehun’s eyes open slow.

And he blinks away his moon-long Sleep.

And Baekhyun still isn’t sure that he isn’t dreaming, so he pinches his thigh hard.

And then, when Sehun finally speaks, his voice creaks from disuse.

“My fathers always called me a late bloomer,” Sehun says with a smile that grows like sunrise on his face, and his eyes are shining with tears, his chest heaving with breath. Baekhyun can see his pulse thump wildly at his neck, and he can practically hear the blood rushing back through him like the water through rivers long dry.

_He lives._

Baekhyun sobs.

“Are you a flower?” Baekhyun asks through hysterical tears that spill onto his face. “Is this you blooming in the spring, my love?”

“I suppose it is,” Sehun says. He raises a hand to brush at Baekhyun’s tears. “I always thought you more the flower than I, but the Moon Lady knows best.”

Baekhyun punches at his shoulder before he falls on top of him, kissing him hard. Baekhyun kisses him so long, so thoroughly, that Baekhyun is afraid that he might kiss the life right back out of him, so he regretfully pulls back, dotting quick, chaste pecks all over Sehun’s face.

“Is this a dream?” Baekhyun asks, gasping between the frantic, frenetic kisses. “Have I died? Is this real? Are you real?”

“It’s real, I’m real,” Sehun says, laughing underneath him. “The Lady told me I had to wait one more day before I could come back to you. So I waited.”

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun says, unable to find the words.

“I’m here,” Sehun smiles. “I’m here. Don’t cry.”

He kisses Baekhyun deeply, and Baekhyun feels like his heart might soar into the night sky to live among the stars.

“I thought...,” Baekhyun cries, tasting salt on their tongues, “I thought you were gone. I thought I had lost you.”

“Nothing could keep me from you, Omega,” Sehun says. “Nothing of this world and nothing of the afterlife.”

He kisses Baekhyun again, and the relief washes over him like the cool spring rains.

“I love you,” Baekhyun says. “I told you so many times.”

“I heard you,” Sehun says. “But I don’t think you heard me respond.”

“So tell me now,” Baekhyun says. “Tell me you love me.”

“I love you,” Sehun says. “I love you more than anything.”

“Again,” Baekhyun orders.

“I love you,” Sehun says.

“I love you,” Baekhyun echoes. “Once more.”

“I love you,” Sehun says, laughing, wiping at Baekhyun’s cheek again. “Don’t cry, Omega.”

He kisses Sehun until he can’t breathe, until his chest heaves and laughs fill his lungs instead of cries. Baekhyun lays his head on Sehun’s chest, and when he listens to the thump of Sehun’s heart, it sounds like the sweetest melody, sweeter than ever before. He stays there and holds Sehun until he believes it isn’t a dream, not some wicked trick of the moon.

Then he jolts upright. The moon. The boys. The _burial._

“Goddess, I have to tell them,” Baekhyun says, hurrying to get out of bed. “I have to tell your fathers. I have to tell the boys. They’re coming. Goodness, I have to tell everyone.”

“ _Goodness_ ,” Sehun mocks, and he wraps his arms tighter around Baekhyun’s waist. Holding him there. “Tell them in a moment. I’ve _missed_ you, puppy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ["the bitch is back" plays as oh sehun descends from the ceiling, arms outstretched] 
> 
> seriously, i hope u werent too worried abt our boy!!! i greatly enjoyed all the comments, even if thats a little cruel of me to say lmao. thank u all for following along. its been quite the journey, hasnt it? we’ve got two chapters left, plus a short epilogue. we’re in the home stretch, folks :’) 
> 
> i do hope you've liked the story so far. we've got some nice calming fluff coming to make up for the Drama™. 
> 
> follow me on twitter @wolfsupremacist. send death threats or porn prompts to my curious cat (jk abt the death threats.....hopefully.....) chapter 18 up sometime this weekend! be well, my friends!!


	18. laurel and burgundy

There’s a knock on the door, solemn and slow.

“Should we play a trick on them?” Sehun asks.

“Are you crazy?” Baekhyun asks. “They’re still _mourning_ you. They’re your _friends_.”

“Yes, but I’m alive,” Sehun says. “They’ll forgive me.”

“They’ll end up _killing_ you,” Baekhyun says. “Stay. I’ll handle it.”

He walks to the door and takes a steadying breath before answering it.

Junmyeon is the one he sees first, and if the Lady was mean, if Sehun hadn’t returned to him, it would have killed Baekhyun to see the look on his face.

“Omega,” Junmyeon says, and there are tears thick in his eyes. “My condolences.”

“Junmyeon,” Baekhyun says, careful. “I--I don’t know how to say this.”

“You don’t have to say anything,” Junmyeon says. “It’s okay. I understand.”

“You don’t,” Baekhyun says. “Not at all. He’s...he’s awoken.”

“He’s...he’s what?” Junmyeon says.

Jongin sticks his head out from behind Junmyeon.

“He what?”

“Come,” Baekhyun says, and he opens the door. “See for yourselves.”

They all hesitate, the group of them, like they think Baekhyun’s truly gone mad, like the isolation and the sadness has _gotten_ to him, before they cross the threshold and see Sehun, sitting up in bed and fiddling with his fingers.

“Hello,” he says happily. “Sorry for giving you such a fright.”

No one moves, as if they don’t trust their own eyes. As if they’re looking at a spirit.

“Well, kindly say something,” Sehun says. “ _I'm_ _happy you aren’t dead, Sehunnie. It’s good to see you, Sehunnie._ ”

Junmyeon jumps first, leaps onto the bed and starts to smack Sehun wildly with flailing limbs, wherever he can reach.

“We thought you were dead, you dumb puppy!” Junmyeon yells. “How dare you? How _dare_ you? How could you pretend like this? What an evil, wretched thing to do! May the Lady have mercy on your soul because I certainly won’t!”

“Ow, ‘Myeon, stop, ow!” Sehun says, trying to brace himself from the onslaught. “I wasn’t pretending! It’s not my fault! Stop!”

“He only just woke,” Baekhyun says quickly. “Truly. When the moon was high...he came back.”

Junmyeon pauses, and wonder spreads through the room.

“Really?” he asks, in awe.

“Really,” Baekhyun says.

“ _Goddess_ ,” Chanyeol whispers. “A miracle.”

“Please,” Baekhyun says, addressing him and Jongin. “Run and get his fathers from the mountain.”

They nod, running out the door with springs in their step.

“How?” Junmyeon wonders, and Baekhyun wishes he knew, wishes he had an answer. He watches as Junmyeon folds Sehun into a crushing embrace, arms wrapped tight around him like if he doesn’t hold him to the earth, he might slip away. Baekhyun knows the feeling.

“I--she didn’t say,” Sehun says, muffled. “But I...I did speak to her.”

“To who?” Jongdae asks, and he comes up behind Baekhyun to lace his fingers with Baekhyun’s.

“The Lady,” Sehun says wistfully. “She’s so pretty.”

“You spoke to her?” Junmyeon asks, pulling Sehun back by the hair to look him in the eye. “What did she say? What happened?”

“She said…,” and Baekhyun’s never seen Sehun cry truly, but the tears sit in his eyes, shining, before they spill prettily onto his face all the same, “she said I had waited a very long time for the love of my life, and that she hoped I didn’t mind waiting just one more night to see him again.”

“ _Moon Lady above,_ ” Junmyeon whispers.

“It was Eclipse,” Sehun says. “She didn’t say so, but...I know it was. I know it.”

 _Eclipse,_ Baekhyun thinks. The Lady stealing the light from the Father, handing it back only after panic set in Baekhyun’s heart and then subsided.

“All these moons passing by,” Jongdae says, “all those moons you thought yourselves cursed. And it was just a little joke from the Father Light.”

“Useless,” Baekhyun says, and Sehun bursts out laughing, as if it’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard. _Goddess_ , he missed that.

He and Jongdae join them on the bed, and they hold the embrace until Sehun’s fathers come.

They storm into the house like they don’t believe it. Baekhyun can’t blame them.

The omega yells out a cry, and the boys move quickly off the bed as Sehun is bodily hauled across it and into his father’s arms.

The alpha is not far behind, and then it is the three of them on the bed, their little family. Baekhyun and his friends watch the tears that fall, the thanks whispered to the heavens. The kisses. The laughter through the cries.

And Baekhyun doesn’t want to intrude.

He puts his arms around Junmyeon and Jongdae, ushering them to the door.

“Where do you think _you’re_ going?” the omega asks.

“I just...I thought you might like a bit of time alone,” Baekhyun says. “I was going to go tell the rest.”

“Stay,” the alpha says.

“Yeah,” Sehun says. “Stay.”

And Baekhyun finds it easy to obey.

Baekhyun turns back to Jongdae and Junmyeon.

“Go,” he says. “Tell them...tell them we won’t be singing tonight.”

 

 

☽

 

 

They decide to stay up, rejoicing. Celebrating. His parents go back and forth, telling Baekhyun stories, trading tales of Sehun’s childhood as Sehun covers his face with his hands. Cheeks pink. Smile boxy and straight, just like it always was.

Laughter rings out, harmonizing with the bell-root crown that Sehun wears on his head, triumphant and proud. The alpha that met the Lady.

Sehun’s fathers, the alpha and omega, make tea and while they fuss with it, Baekhyun follows Sehun as he walks to the door, drawn to the night air.

“Goddess,” Sehun says, standing at the threshold in the breeze. “That’s a lot of flowers.”

It’s an understatement. There is a small ocean of offerings at the door, down the path that runs from the cabin.

Sehun plucks a strawberry from a basket, eats it happily. Baekhyun watches, watches as the juice runs red from his lips. He licks himself clean, and Baekhyun is struck by him. Alive. Alive. The kiss of deep red at his mouth. An omen, Baekhyun thinks. Life. 

“Well, you’re well loved, Alpha,” Baekhyun says.

“I am, aren’t I?” Sehun says, pleased.

He takes another strawberry in his hand before he offers it to Baekhyun, places the flesh of the fruit at his lips. Baekhyun opens his mouth, takes a bite. Sehun watches with rapt attention before he takes the rest of the berry for his own.

“You are loved,” Baekhyun says. “By no one more than me.”

“No,” Sehun smiles. “By no one more than you.”

 

 

☾

 

 

Though it’s much later, the night is still dark when Jongdae and Junmyeon return.

“Hi,” Jongdae says when Baekhyun opens the door, and Jongdae is panting. “Come on.”

He drags Baekhyun out of the house by the hand, Baekhyun laughing behind him.

“What are you doing?” Baekhyun giggles, struggling away from the hold. “You fool.”

“I’m taking you prisoner,” Jongdae says. “Come on, let’s go. Sehunnie, you too. Alpha. Omega. Come on. You’re all needed. It’s very important. Come, come.”

Half a dozen walk down the well-trod path from the cabin in the north to the center of the pack grounds. As they close in, Baekhyun sees smoke from the hall’s stack.

“What’s going on?” Baekhyun asks.

“Just a little something,” Jongdae says mischievously.

And as they approach, Baekhyun hears the drums. The strings. The flutes. Music. Laughter. Shouts. _A feast_ , he realizes.

Junmyeon smiles at him as he opens the door, and the wall of sound hits them squarely.

When the wolves see Sehun, living, breathing, smiling with the crown of flowers on his head, the roar is deafening. He’s immediately swept up into the arms of the pack, and Baekhyun watches as he’s hoisted onto shoulders, gasping with his laughter.

Baekhyun turns back to Jongdae and Junmyeon at the door with tears in his eyes.

“You...you didn’t have to do this,” Baekhyun says.

“We didn’t do anything,” Junmyeon says simply. “The pack did.”

 

 

☽

 

 

Honey wine flows like the river, amber-gold like the hour before dusk when everything is softly lit, orange and beautiful. The food is plentiful: pork pies, rashers of bacon, kabobs of beef slathered in red pepper sauce, pickled radishes and carrots, potatoes both fried and mashed, cheese crisps, apple tarts, lemon cakes, and best of all, Junmyeon’s strawberry rhubarb pie. Chanyeol strums his little lute, a pretty finger-picked song. Baekhyun closes his eyes and loses himself to it. He is so very tired, but he can’t imagine sleeping.

Everyone wants a moment with Sehun, and Baekhyun feels generous. He’ll have him for the rest of their days, he reasons. The pack can have him for tonight.

Jongdae plies him with drinks, keeps his cup full and sloshing as he keeps Baekhyun laughing.

“Goddess,” Jongdae says, “you look happy.”

And it occurs to Baekhyun that he is. Exceedingly happy.

“I am,” Baekhyun says. “I’ve never been happier than I am right now.”

Jongdae clings to him, a hug that lasts forever it feels. 

What a change from just hours ago, when sadness stuck to him like a lake leech. Always darkest before the dawn, that’s what his grandmother said.  


 

☾

 

 

Nearing the end, he finds himself rather drunk, standing in the cool night as the celebration rages on. It’s been an unseasonably cold spring, but Baekhyun’s never minded the cold too much, especially not when the alcohol simmers underneath his skin.

Baekhyun almost thinks he’s dreaming when arms circle his waist.

“What are you doing out here, hm?” Sehun asks, nuzzling into Baekhyun.  

“Getting some air,” Baekhyun says, and he leans back into Sehun’s body.

Sehun hums against him, and it rumbles through Baekhyun. Every little movement is a reminder that he lives. That the trial is over. That the storm has passed. That his love has returned, just as he promised he would.

“You’re drunk,” Sehun accuses, but Baekhyun can feel him smile when he puts his lips against Baekhyun’s neck.

“No,” Baekhyun says.

“You’re swaying,” Sehun says.

“Maybe that’s just because I want to dance with you,” Baekhyun replies, and he moves his hips from side to side more deliberately, moving with the wind.

“You’re sweet when you’re drunk,” Sehun says, and there’s enough of a slur in his voice that Baekhyun knows he’s had his fair share, but he doesn’t call him on it, just relishes the feeling of Sehun’s hands on him, his voice in the air.

They stand there for a while, or what feels like a while, and Baekhyun braces his hands on Sehun’s at his stomach. The pack is loud in the hall, but the roar is dulled through the walls.

“Are you having fun?” Baekhyun asks.

“Yes,” Sehun says, “I’ll have to thank them all somehow.”

Baekhyun doesn’t say what he thinks, doesn’t turn in Sehun’s arms and say _your life is thanks enough_ , just stays quiet and smiles to himself.

“So,” Baekhyun says, “tell me.”

“Tell you what?” Sehun says.

“Don’t tell me you don’t remember,” Baekhyun says. “All those times you told me to wait. That you’d tell me more when you woke. Well, Sehun-ah, you’ve awoken. So tell me.”

Sehun laughs, and Baekhyun’s heard it at least a hundred times since he woke, but it still feels fresh in his head. Dizzying.

“You’re so precious,” Sehun says, and he squeezes Baekhyun in his arms. “You want to hear about us being Tied?”

“Yes,” Baekhyun says. “Please.”

“It’s a moon from now,” Sehun says, and his hands meander across Baekhyun’s stomach as he speaks. “And the cloth we wear is soft. Light. I could nearly see through it. When you walked in the river, it clung to your legs.”

“Yeah?” Baekhyun says.

“Yeah,” Sehun says, and he kisses under Baekhyun’s ear. “I got in trouble for staring. Junmyeon smacked me.”

“That sounds like him,” Baekhyun scoffs.

“The tie we used,” Sehun says, as he plays with Baekhyun’s fingers, “was the tie my fathers used.”

Overwhelming affection floods through Baekhyun’s body, coursing like the river.

“Junmyeon fastened our hands together. Did something with them, I don’t quite know how it happened, but once we separated our hands…the knot was tied. And then, before it was all over, he told a nice story,” Sehun says. “About when we were younger.”

“Tell it to me,” Baekhyun says.

“Let it be a surprise,” Sehun says. “Silly pup.”

“But I hate surprises,” Baekhyun whines.

“You absolutely do not,” Sehun says, and Baekhyun turns in Sehun’s embrace to fight, but when he sees Sehun’s smile, it falls away. “You seemed quite happy to see me wake.”

“Goddess, what was I thinking? Of course you’re right,” Baekhyun says, and he kisses Sehun deeply. “The best surprise of my life.”

 

 

☽

 

 

Sehun finds him again, an hour or so later, back behind the hall near the trees.

“Omega,” he calls, walking over to him. “Again?”

“It’s so hot in there,” Baekhyun says. “It’s hard to breathe.”

“I told you to drink water,” Sehun laughs.

“Shut up,” Baekhyun grouses. “It’s not because I’m _drunk_.”

“Whatever you say, love,” Sehun smiles.

Baekhyun grabs him by the shoulders, shoves him against an ironwood, goes up on his tiptoes to kiss him fiercely.

“I told you,” Baekhyun says, licking the seam of Sehun’s lips, “to shut up.”

Sehun bites his bottom lip, worries at it, and what is Baekhyun supposed to do, he wonders? He’s not made of stone, and the alcohol courses through him like electric heat. He presses against Sehun, crafts the line that only their bodies know how to make.

“I keep losing you,” Sehun says as he kisses Baekhyun by the ear. “Every time I turn around, you’ve run off. Can’t have that.”

“I’ll stay right here, Alpha,” Baekhyun says. “As long as you keep me here.”

“How should I do that, then?” Sehun whispers. “Should I…”

He slips a thigh between Baekhyun’s legs, gives Baekhyun something to grind on.

“Should I talk to you?” Sehun asks. “Give you something to listen to?”

“Y--yes,” Baekhyun says. “Speak to me.”

“Ah,” Sehun moans, and he tightens the muscles in his thigh as Baekhyun pushes against it. “I missed you, Baekhyun.”

Even hearing his name come from Sehun’s lips sends warmth spiraling through him. He knew he’d be on edge, after so long, but he didn’t know it would take so little.

“I missed everything about you,” Sehun says. “Your eyes.”

Sehun’s thumbs on Baekhyun's face are gentle, and he lets his eyes flutter shut when they ghost over his eyelids. His fingers graze over the high points of Baekhyun’s cheeks, sweep down the sides of his nose.

“Your nose,” Sehun says, before stroking a thumb along Baekhyun’s bottom lip. “Your mouth.”

Sehun’s hands dance down the side of Baekhyun’s neck, and he bares it on instinct.

“This mark,” he says. He clasps the back of Baekhyun’s neck and pulls him forward, latches a kiss to the scar, a kiss so good that Baekhyun shakes in Sehun’s hands.

He runs a hand along Baekhyun’s front and down. Baekhyun arches into it.

“Missed how you sound when I touch you like this,” Sehun whispers.

"Please," Baekhyun says, and he doesn't know what he's asking for until Sehun gives it to him. 

He drags him into a kiss, filthy and beautiful and pure.

Baekhyun's losing himself to it, to the twist of Sehun’s tongue in his mouth, and he can see himself begging for even more with just a few moments more. It flashes in his head like memories that have yet to been made: his body writhing, Sehun’s mouth at his neck and his hands playing at Baekhyun’s hips and moving lower, his leg pressing up against Baekhyun’s cock, making him moan, making him…

“What are you two doing?” Junmyeon screeches.

Baekhyun instinctually springs back from Sehun like his touch would burn his fingertips before he realizes that he’s got no reason to. He huddles back into Sehun’s space, wraps his arms around him, and buries his face into Sehun’s chest.

“Nothing,” Sehun says, and Baekhyun’s delighted to hear the labor in his breath.

“Didn’t _look_ like nothing,” Junmyeon says primly. “In any case, Sehunnie, your fathers are looking for you both. They want to have a toast.”

“Right,” Sehun says. “Um, we’ll be in shortly.”

Baekhyun chances a glance back at Junmyeon, sees him smirk.

“I’ll buy you some time,” he says.

“Thank you,” Sehun says, and he pets over the back of Baekhyun’s neck and makes him shudder in his arms. “I have a feeling we won’t be long.”

 

 

☾

 

 

“Come on, now,” Sehun says, and he’s got Baekhyun’s arm draped around his shoulder, holding him up. “Cooperate with me, Omega.”

“No,” Baekhyun says. “ _You_ cooperate with _me_.”

“If I cooperated with you, we’d be sleeping in the violets tonight,” Sehun says. “We’re not far now. See just there? There’s a bed waiting for you. Remember our bed?”

Baekhyun hums. It’s been a moon since he slept in their bed. Soft. Downy. And with Sehun too...

“I can’t walk any further,” Baekhyun whines. “The Mother won’t stop--Goddess, she won't stop moving.”

“She’s not moving,” Sehun laughs. “You just have an exceedingly low tolerance for honey wine.”

“It wasn’t _just_ honey wine,” Baekhyun says. “Your evil parents.”

“My evil parents, hm? And what did my evil parents do, little omega?” Sehun asks, and he sounds so amused.

“They offered me moonshine,” Baekhyun says. “It would have been in poor taste to turn down a drink from my Alpha’s parents.”

“I’ll scold them properly tomorrow,” Sehun laughs.

“Thank you, Alpha,” Baekhyun says. 

They walk slowly, Baekhyun wobbling along the way. 

“Whoa,” Sehun says. “Steady now, puppy.”

“Don’t call me that,” Baekhyun gripes.

“Call you what? Puppy?” Sehun says. “Goddess, so much has changed in a moon. Before I Slept, you liked me calling you puppy so much that it made you come.”

“ _Stop_ ,” Baekhyun whimpers, and he slaps Sehun’s shoulder. “Evil.”

“You know what they say about apples falling from trees,” Sehun smirks, and Baekhyun thinks idly that Sehun will be able to get away with so much because Baekhyun doesn’t think he’ll ever find it in himself to be upset with him.

Once he’s led back to the house, he’s given water which he happily gulps down as he watches Sehun strip himself of his clothes. The sun rises, bathing him in pale gold light, and Baekhyun watches, dumbstruck. He really is a servant of the Lady. An angel.

“Not that you staring isn’t a flattering reminder that you still find me attractive,” Sehun smiles, “but I think it’s time you slept, my love.”

Baekhyun doesn’t know how long he’s been awake, but when he lays down with the softness of the bed and of Sehun’s body yielding to him, he feels the exhaustion thick in his head like fog. His eyelids grow heavy with the alcohol and the warmth, but he fights against it, choosing instead to stare at Sehun.

“Close your eyes,” Sehun whispers as he stares back.

“No,” Baekhyun whispers back.

“Sleep, pup,” Sehun says, still hushed.

“No,” Baekhyun says, and he means it. He doesn’t need to sleep. Not when Sehun is there.

Sehun rearranges his body, tucks an arm under his head. He looks so pretty. The crown of flowers hangs off the bed post, the bells still ringing, though the song gets quieter and quieter as time goes on.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Sehun says, and he pets Baekhyun’s hair. “You can sleep now.”

“I don’t need to,” Baekhyun says, but his body betrays him when he’s forced to close his mouth tight around a yawn.

“Come here, pup,” Sehun says, and he pulls Baekhyun into his arms so he can play with his hair. “Sleep for me. I’ll be here when you wake.”

Baekhyun fights for as long as he can, but he loses the battle moments later, warm in his alpha’s arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wah, im getting emo since it's all coming to a close soon! 
> 
> as always, im incredibly touched by your comments. and thank u so much for 200 kudos! wrow! ive been in other fandoms before, but this is by far the kindest and most engaged reading community i've ever written for. so thank you again. i truly do appreciate it. 
> 
> plugs? plugs. twitter: @wolfsupremacist. curious cat: curiouscat.me/wolfsupremacist.  
> ask me questions, send me prompts and encouragements, or be my friend. 
> 
> chapter 19 + the epilogue will be up either wednesday or thursday night. thanks for following along, friends. have a good week.


	19. tied

They spend time in bed. Too much time, Baekhyun thinks, considering that he never wants to even _hear_ the word sleep again.

“You’re such a puppy,” Sehun laughs.

“Yah,” Baekhyun says. He lays his body over Sehun’s, cages him in with his arms. “Be nice to me. I cried a lot.”

Sehun’s smile is bright, bright like the sun filtering in through the window, suffusing the room in a red-orange glow. Baekhyun nearly collapses, arms going weak when Sehun scratches up his back. He shivers into the touch.

“I would hope,” Sehun says, and he reaches up to cup Baekhyun’s jaw in his hand. “Do you feel like crying now?”

“No,” Baekhyun says softly.

Sehun drags Baekhyun down and kisses him messily. They’ve spent a lot of time just kissing, and Baekhyun thinks he’s probably to blame for it. There’s not much he wants to do besides talk to Sehun, worship him, kiss him silly. Eventually, he thinks,they’ll have to return to their posts, but at least for a little while, he wants to soak in the moment.

“Your lips are so soft,” Sehun says before he presses another peck to them. “I could kiss you all day.”

“Then do it, Alpha,” Baekhyun challenges.

Sehun surges up and rolls Baekhyun onto his back, eliciting a gasp.

“Forgot how that felt?” Sehun asks.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun says.

“Did you miss it?” Sehun asks.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun says breathlessly.

Sehun smirks, and Baekhyun wishes he could pretend like he used to that it bothered him, that he was cross just so that Sehun would work to make him forget. But he can’t pretend. Not when Sehun is above him. Real and in Baekhyun’s hands.

“I missed it,” Sehun says, the conceited expression sliding off his face, morphing into something more tender. “Not just...not just this, but being with you. Just _being_ with you.”

“I know,” Baekhyun says. “Me too.”

He’s not sure he would have made it without the easy way Sehun can fill silence with laughter, the way his smile can light up rooms, even dark forests, even the bottoms of deep, lightless waters.

“Come on,” Sehun says, and he pushes Baekhyun onto his side, spoons up behind him. “Sleep for me.”

“We’ve been sleeping all day,” Baekhyun says.

“Not all day,” Sehun replies, and he can practically hear the smile.

“Dirty,” Baekhyun says.

He laughs, and Baekhyun’s body shakes with it.

“Rest, sweet thing,” Sehun says, and he rakes his nails against Baekhyun’s scalp. “I’ll be here when you wake.”

Baekhyun knows, Sehun always tells him it now, but still, it’s nice to hear. His eyes grow heavy, heavier, and then he’s asleep once more.

 

 

☽

 

 

He stands in the doorway, arms stretched across from frame to frame.

“Omega,” Sehun says.

“Alpha,” Baekhyun says.

“Let me out of the damn house,” Sehun says.

“Why?” Baekhyun asks. “Everything you need is right here.”

He smiles as charmingly as he knows how.

“Goddess, you’re cute,” Sehun says. He catches Baekhyun’s face in his hands so he can kiss him softly. “Let me leave.”

“No,” Baekhyun says. “Stay. With me.”

“Omega, I haven’t seen the light in two days,” Sehun laughs. “You can’t keep me here forever.”

“Watch me,” Baekhyun says, and he grabs Sehun by the collar, pulling him back to the bed.

Baekhyun pushes him down and pins his hands by his head.

“Haven’t you had enough yet?” Sehun asks mischievously. He pumps his hips up, setting Baekhyun a bit off balance. “Fine, once more. But just a quick one.”

“Shut up,” Baekhyun says, and he picks Sehun’s wrists up just to slam them back to the bed. “You stay here.”

“Okay,” Sehun says. “Fine.”

“Okay,” Baekhyun says. “Good.”

He dips down to kiss Sehun as a reward, and Sehun moans into his mouth. Baekhyun licks at Sehun’s tongue, lacing their fingers together. Now that Sehun’s mentioned it, he thinks he might be up for it. It feels like a second heat. He just wants to be knotted and filled.

“Come here,” Sehun says against Baekhyun’s lips. “Let me take care of you.”

Baekhyun moans, bares his neck.

“Give me your back, pup,” Sehun says, and Baekhyun is eager to obey, quickly rolling to the side and presenting himself.

He feels Sehun kneel behind him, big hands stroking down his spine.

“So pretty,” Sehun says. “You want it?”

“Yes,” Baekhyun says.

“You want it bad?” Sehun asks.

“Yes,” Baekhyun hisses.

That’s when Baekhyun feels him make a break for it, sprinting over to the door, leaving Baekhyun tussling with the furs.

“Hah,” Sehun says triumphantly. “You think you’re so clever, don’t you? But I’m cleverer! Or...more clever! Whichever!”

“Be quiet,” Baekhyun says. “Dumb puppy.”

“Come get your dumb puppy,” Sehun says, dancing back and forth in the doorway.

When Baekhyun jumps up, Sehun runs out.

“Get back here,” Baekhyun says.

“Come and get me,” Sehun says, bouncing from foot to foot in the garden.

Baekhyun can’t help it. He wants to drag Sehun back into the house by his hair, but the way Sehun smiles, the way his skin shines under the light of the Father, is dazzling. And so he stands in the threshold and watches as Sehun runs around in the flowers like a child, trying to tempt Baekhyun into a chase.

It isn’t long before Baekhyun gives in.

 

 

☾

 

 

Baekhyun is knelt between Sehun’s spread legs, hands gentle on Sehun’s waist as he slowly pumps his hips.

“Stop,” Sehun says.

Baekhyun immediately pauses and starts pulling out.

“No, no. Not that,” Sehun says. “Stop...stop treating me that way.”

He raises his legs, locks his ankles around Baekhyun’s waist, and pulls Baekhyun in by the hair.

“What way?” Baekhyun asks, confused.

“Like I’m going to break,” Sehun says. “I’m not fragile. I’m not weak.”

“I know you aren’t,” Baekhyun says.

“Then you don’t have to fuck me like you’re worried I’m going to fall apart in your hands,” Sehun says, and he runs his hands down Baekhyun’s chest. “Do it properly, Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun thrusts slowly, shallowly.

“Omega,” Sehun growls. “Quit it.”

“If you don’t think I’m doing it right, then do it yourself,” Baekhyun says.

“Fine,” Sehun says, and he rolls them expertly, legs settled on either side of Baekhyun’s body as he lowers himself onto Baekhyun’s cock again, groaning at the feeling of being filled.

“Ah,” Baekhyun moans, and his hands fly to Sehun’s waist to steady him.

“See?” Sehun says, rolling his hips smoothly, fucking himself down. “See how well I take your cock, Omega?”

Baekhyun bites down on his lip hard, and the shoot of pain that jumps through him helps him stave off the orgasm that felt imminent just seconds ago.

He rides Baekhyun well, raising himself up smoothly and lowering himself back down again with little high-pitched moans that Baekhyun isn’t used to hearing from him.

“Come on, puppy,” Sehun says. “Fill me up. You’ve been so good.”

It hits him squarely, and Baekhyun isn’t sure what exactly puts him over the edge: the way Sehun speaks, the way he looks, the way he tenses around Baekhyun’s cock, or the fact that they’ve been at it for longer than Baekhyun’s stamina can take. Or maybe some combination of all of it. He comes hard, pulsing deep into Sehun’s body.

When he can think straight again, he offers Sehun his hand to fuck into, Sehun bucking his hips and moaning while Baekhyun grits his teeth at the over-stimulation. Sehun comes all over Baekhyun’s chest, hot and wet.

Sehun tumbles off Baekhyun’s body, and they both stare at the ceiling as they catch the wind before Sehun turns onto his side to face Baekhyun. He wipes Baekhyun’s front clean, leans into Baekhyun’s space.

“Are you through with that now?” Sehun asks.

Baekhyun turns to face him too.

“Through with what?” Baekhyun asks.

“With the over-protection,” Sehun says.

“Oh, stop,” Baekhyun says. “I’m not doing anything of the sort.”

“You wouldn’t let me leave the house for three days, puppy,” Sehun says. “You didn’t want to fuck me too rough. You cut my meat for me the other day.”

“You had a long Sleep. You need to be taken care of,” Baekhyun says. “I don’t know if you remember, but you _died_ , Alpha.”

“But I’m here now,” Sehun smiles. “Remember?”

“Yes,” Baekhyun says. “I remember.”

“I know you have nerves,” Sehun whispers. “I know you fear for me. But I’m here, Omega. I’m here for good. And believe me when I say that, no matter what, you and I will never part.”

Baekhyun shuts his eyes.

“Ah,” Sehun says, brushing at the single tear that streaks down Baekhyun’s face. “No more of this.”

Sehun frames Baekhyun’s jaw with his thumbs, draws him into a kiss that makes Baekhyun forget, makes Baekhyun smile.

When Sehun finally pulls back, he kisses Baekhyun on the nose, still finding his breath.

“That’s an order, Omega,” Sehun says.

“Yes, Alpha,” Baekhyun says.

 

 

☾

 

 

They go to the lake most days, picnics packed.

“Got the sun. Got the lake. Got food. Got my boy,” Sehun says, hands behind his head as he relaxes on the sandy shore. “I could get used to this.”

“Don’t,” Baekhyun says.

“Why not?” Sehun asks.

“Because we’re gonna have to go back to work soon. And don’t call me your _boy_ ,” Baekhyun says, and he leans down to bite Sehun on the shoulder.

“Aren’t you my boy, though?” Sehun asks, grinning.

“No,” Baekhyun says. “I’m my own boy.”

“You say that now,” Sehun says.

“Yes, I do,” Baekhyun says before he plasters his body against Sehun’s, clinging to him.

“My boy,” he whispers, and Baekhyun decides to pretend like he hasn’t heard it. He is Sehun’s boy, after all. He always was.

 

 

☽

 

 

The violets are lush. Sehun’s arms are warm. The Lady sits in her throne, pale yellow and beautiful.

“We shouldn’t do this,” Baekhyun says even as he uses Sehun’s chest as a pillow. “What if we crush them, and then they never come back?”

“You worry too much,” Sehun says.

He runs his hands through Baekhyun’s hair, kisses him on the forehead.  

“You don’t worry  _enough_ ,” Baekhyun grumbles.

“We balance each other,” Sehun smiles. “Besides, these violets have come and gone every season since I can remember. They’ll be around for a great while.”

Baekhyun pushes up to look at Sehun in the eye.

“Since you can remember?” Baekhyun asks. “When you asked to court me, you told me you’d only just found them.”

“Oh, right,” Sehun says, before happily replying, “I lied.”  

“You what?” Baekhyun squawks.

“I  _lied_ ,” Sehun says, drawing out the vowels.

“Why would you lie?” Baekhyun asks. “I thought we didn’t have any secrets!”

“It was just this small one,” Sehun says. “And I lied because I didn’t want you to think I was strange.”

“Why would I have thought that?” Baekhyun says.

“Because I found them when we were just pups,” Sehun says. “Right after you presented.”

“Y--you did?” Baekhyun asks.

“I did,” Sehun smiles. “Couldn’t get enough of the way you smelled. One day, after a training run, I was exploring. And I smelled the violets, thought it was you hiding. So I came right here, but instead of finding you, I found the flowers.”

Baekhyun punches Sehun hard in the chest before collapsing on top of him, kissing him senseless.

“Idiot,” Baekhyun smiles.

 

 

☽

 

 

Eventually, _eventually,_ things go back to normal.

Sehun works again, and Baekhyun does too. They meet the same time every day, just as they used to. At the start, they’re still the talk of the pack and the wolves leave tokens of affection, tokens of good luck at their door, but they move fast and within a moon, they’re on to another piece of theater.

Baekhyun likes it that way. He never wanted all the attention on them. It’s nice to fade into the background again.

“You could never fade into the background,” Sehun says, pinching Baekhyun’s ear. “Too pretty.”

“Shut up,” Baekhyun says, and he shoves Sehun in the side hard enough to push him off the trail and into the wood. “You’re the pretty one.”

Sehun laughs, jogs back up to walk alongside Baekhyun once more.

“We can both be the pretty one,” Sehun says. “How about that?”

“Fine,” Baekhyun says. “We’re both the pretty one.”

 

 

☾

 

 

“Fuck,” Sehun whispers. “You’re so good at that.”

“Practice makes perfect,” Baekhyun says, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Come here,” Sehun says as he reaches out his hands to grab for Baekhyun.

He slithers up Sehun’s body, lets himself be hauled into a messy kiss, Sehun lax with the comedown.

“I was thinking,” Sehun says.

“Oh?” Baekhyun says.

“Yeah, I was thinking,” Sehun says, “seven suns from now.”

“What about it?” Baekhyun asks.

“Wanna get Tied?” Sehun asks.

He looks so carefully hopeful, like there’s a chance Baekhyun might say no. He couldn’t imagine.

“Yes,” Baekhyun says. “Please.”

“Good,” Sehun smiles. “Seven suns then.”

He pushes Baekhyun onto his back.

“Now,” he says as he slides down Baekhyun’s body, “time to take care of you.”

 

 

☽

 

 

“Hurry. You don’t want to be late,” Jongdae says, prodding him. “You don’t wanna miss it.”

“It’s not as if I _can_ be late,” Baekhyun says, fussing with his braid. “It can’t happen without me, after all.”

“You never know,” Jongdae says, and Baekhyun turns to give him a withering stare. “Maybe another omega will…”

“Say another word and die,” Baekhyun says.

“You’re so nasty,” Jongdae says. “How’d you manage to bag such a nice alpha?”

“Well...,” Baekhyun says, coupling it with a lascivious grin.

“Oh, I’m finished now,” Jongdae says as he throws up his hands. “Foul. Disgusting. Shameful.”

“Yes,” Baekhyun says, still putting flowers in his hair. “I am.”

Jongdae laughs, but then he starts fidgeting.

“Jongdae,” Baekhyun says. “You’re making me nervous.”

“I can't help it. We have to _go,_ ” Jongdae says.

“I’m _going_ ,” Baekhyun says.   

“I’m serious,” Jongdae says, and he’s dancing around. “I told them I’d get you there on time.”

“I’m going, I’m going,” Baekhyun says.

The walk to the river is mostly quiet, but Jongdae holds his hand, quiets nerves that have no right to be swirling in Baekhyun’s stomach. They see a group of puppies on their way to supper who cheer, and Baekhyun smiles at them, especially when they tell him he looks pretty.  

When they get to the clearing, Baekhyun stops and closes his eyes.

“What?” Jongdae whispers.

“I’m just taking a moment,” Baekhyun says.

“This is really not the time to get cold paws,” Jongdae says.

“It’s not _cold paws_ ,” Baekhyun says. “I’m committing this to memory.”

Jongdae smiles, says, “you’re so soft,” before walking further into the clearing and, within a moment or two, Baekhyun hears him wade into the water.

Baekhyun steels himself, takes a deep breath, opens his eyes, and follows.

The Father sets, immersing them all in red, orange, pink. Glittering on the river like gemstones.  

Sehun wears the same white tunic that Baekhyun does, the thin, nearly transparent material of it wet at his knees. He wears flowers in his hair, same as Baekhyun, and he wears a smile, same as Baekhyun.

Baekhyun walks forward until his toes are at the edge of the river bed.

“Hi,” Sehun says shyly.

“Hi,” Baekhyun says.

“Oh, for the Lady’s sake,” Jongdae says. “You’re mated already, stop acting like puppies who’ve never kissed before.”

Baekhyun walks over to Jongdae and punches him hard in the shoulder.

“Violence?” Jongdae screeches. “On the day of your Tying?”

“Shut up,” Baekhyun says.

“Baekhyun,” Junmyeon says, “put your hand on top of Sehun’s.”  

Sehun grabs for Baekhyun’s, and at first, Baekhyun’s hand only rests above Sehun’s, but after a moment, Sehun’s thumb brushes against his own, and Baekhyun slides his thumb under Sehun’s palm.

“Who comes today to be Tied?” Junmyeon asks.

“We do,” they say.

“Do you come knowing the reason?” Junmyeon asks.

“We do,” they say, and then Sehun squeezes Baekhyun’s hand.

“We dedicate ourselves to each other,” Baekhyun says.  

“We bind ourselves in this life and the next,” Sehun says.

“Now say the words,” Junmyeon says.

“You first,” Sehun nudges.

“Why me?” Baekhyun says.

“Because,” Sehun shrugs.

“That’s no reason at all,” Baekhyun says.

“Can you quit fighting?” Jongdae whines. “You’re being Tied.”

“It’s not a _fight_ ,” Baekhyun says. “But fine, I’ll go first.”

He turns back to Sehun and is struck by how handsome he looks, how perfect he is. Servant to the lady, wearing his halo of flowers.

“I give myself to you,” Baekhyun says. “Freely. Forever.”

“I give myself to you,” Sehun says in turn. “Freely. Forever.”

His smile is almost too beautiful to behold, too stunning to look at head on. Baekhyun looks away. Blinks back his tears.

“Soft,” Sehun whispers, and he rubs his thumb against the back of Baekhyun’s hand.

Junmyeon wraps the ties, complicated and confusing, occasionally manipulating their joined hands around before patting them and stepping back.

“Under the watch of the Mother, the Father, and the Lady, you have promised yourselves to each other,” Junmyeon says. “And I remember, back when you were pups, Baekhyun, I don’t know if you’ll even remember this…”

Baekhyun looks at Sehun who wears a slanted smile and watery eyes.

“I went looking for Sehun. I don’t remember why, I think maybe his parents were looking for him,” Junmyeon says. “He couldn’t have been more than one hundred moons. About eight years old. Such a timid little thing. A sweet pup, really. So I searched and searched. Better part of the evening I spent looking for him. And I found him in the in the forest, I remember, because when I found him, he was backed up against a tree, your hands against his shoulders, and you were kissing the daylights out of him.”

“Oh _Goddess,_ ” Baekhyun says, and he plasters his free hand against his forehead.

“You ran off after,” Junmyeon smiles. “So I walked over, going to pretend I hadn’t just see what happened, but Sehun was frozen. Couldn’t even move. So I asked him what was the matter, and do you know what he told me?”

Baekhyun shakes his head, eyes never leaving Sehun’s.

“He said ‘I found my mate,’” Junmyeon says.

And Baekhyun can’t help himself, just surges forward to press his mouth to Sehun’s, just like that day so many moons ago in the forest when he just wanted to try it, just to know what it would be like.

Now, he knows. Now, he just wants it again and again. Forever.

“He’s always known,” Junmyeon says. “And in some secret part of you, you've always known too. The Lady made you both so that you may belong to each other. Alpha and Omega as one. Forever.”

“Goddess,” Baekhyun says, wiping at his eyes.

“Sometimes,” Junmyeon says, “sometimes you will be separated beyond your control. Sometimes you will face trials that will drive you apart. You will confront demons that seek to divide you.”

He directs them to grab the ends of the ties with their free hands, and when they slip their hands out of the bind, they pull, and when they do, the knot ties between them.

“But you can never be divided,” Junmyeon says. “Love will not allow it.”

“Never let this feeling go,” he continues. “Never let the devotion that you have for each other falter. Never forget the affections you share for one another. Always treasure your mate. Always keep them first in your heart. And always remember that not even death can untie you.”

“You are bound until skies go starless,” he says. “Until the Mother goes fallow, until the Father goes dark, until the Lady no longer breathes life into the tides and no longer puts a howl in your chest. You are Tied, for now and for always.”

“For now,” they repeat, “and for always."

“You may kiss,” Junmyeon smiles, and when they do, Jongdae yells out a cheer that echoes down the river banks.

When they finally break apart, water still lapping at their legs, Sehun wears the brightest smile Baekhyun’s ever seen, brighter than the sun itself.

“Finally,” he says.

 

 

☾

 

 

When they fall together, it’s in the clearing to the south, the field of the peonies still white like snow.

Their feet are dirty, the bottoms of their tunics still wet. But they don’t bother to walk home because Baekhyun doesn’t see a point. They will know each other in filth and in purity, in sadness and in joy, in all ways. He won’t let something as silly as some river silt stand in his way of consummation.

As soon as they make it there, no one in sight for a mile, Baekhyun is on Sehun, kissing him senseless.

“Do we really need to consummate?” Sehun asks, smiling. “We’ve already done it loads of times. Doesn’t it seem...unnecessary?”

“Did you really just say knotting was _unnecessary_?” Baekhyun asks. “What sort of alpha are you?”

“The sort that likes to tease his mate,” Sehun says, kissing down his neck. “What sort of omega are you, hm? Begging for a knot? I thought that was beneath you.”

“I’m trying to get _you_ beneath me,” Baekhyun grins. “Now strip and lie down. Be good for your omega.”

“Yes, Baekhyun,” Sehun says dutifully, and he takes off his clothes slowly, peeling the wet fabric up and over his head like a tease. His skin nearly glows in the night, and Baekhyun nearly chokes on how much he loves him, how much he would die for him.

Sehun lies down, smiles up at Baekhyun.

“Are you joining me?” he asks.

Baekhyun cocks a hip.

“Would you like me to?” Baekhyun asks.

“Yes, please,” Sehun says.

Baekhyun strips himself down, tossing his clothes into a pile with Sehun’s before draping himself atop Sehun’s body and kissing him soundly. It’s wet, hot. Baekhyun can’t get enough, the feel of Sehun’s skin under his. Sehun holds him by the neck, by the small of his back, and Baekhyun pushes into his hold, tangling his tongue with Sehun’s and groaning.

They grind against each other clumsily, so eager to make their Tying official that it practically erodes their history. It feels like the very first time, Baekhyun thinks, when it was so hot that he could barely breath, so full of emotion that it welled in his eyes and filled his chest.

“You want it here?” Sehun asks, kissing along the shell of Baekhyun’s ear. “Where the Lady can see?”

“Yes,” Baekhyun says. “Let her see.”

“We’ll show her how good you are,” Sehun says, and he bites along the slope of Baekhyun’s neck, leaving Baekhyun to cry out into the night. “Show her what pretty sounds you make.”

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun begs. “Please.”

Sehun reaches down to feel the slick at the backs of his thighs, his fingers playing through it.

“You’re so good for me,” Sehun whispers, soft in Baekhyun’s ears. “So good.”

“Please,” Baekhyun says.

“I’m going, I’m going,” Sehun says, before warning, “patience.”

“Who needs patience?” Baekhyun gripes. “We have the rest of our lives for patience.”

“I guess you’re right,” Sehun smiles, and he kisses Baekhyun square, licking into Baekhyun’s mouth, and when he does, he slides two fingers into Baekhyun to stretch him.

Baekhyun groans, and it echoes into Sehun’s mouth in that filthy way that Baekhyun loves. He angles his hips up, fucking himself on Sehun’s fingers steadily. He’ll never tire of the way Sehun can make him fall apart so easily just with two long fingers, but the more he teases at the spot that curls Baekhyun’s toes, the more desperate Baekhyun gets.

“Come on,” Baekhyun says. “Enough.”

“Just a little more,” Sehun says.

And he pumps his fingers into Baekhyun, punishing in how it isn’t nearly enough, Baekhyun’s cock grinding into Sehun’s abdomen.

“Fuck me,” Baekhyun says as he sits up to straddle Sehun properly. “Alpha, do it.”

Sehun wets his dick using the slick from his fingers, and then Baekhyun feels the head lining up before Sehun thrusts up, knocking Baekhyun forward. He has to brace himself on Sehun’s chest, hands planted on Sehun’s pectorals to keep himself upright.

“More,” Baekhyun says.

And Sehun obliges, fucking into him to a rhythm that Sehun knows Baekhyun likes best: lightning-fast and staccato, punching the air out of his lungs. He can barely whine, barely whimper, barely _think_ with the way that Sehun fucks him.

Sehun flips him over at some point, leans over him and thrusts hard, making Baekhyun cry out.

When Sehun comes, it’s with a groan that swells in the open air. He pushes in, erratic, Baekhyun’s ankles locked around his waist. He grinds into Baekhyun, in, in. It’s delicious. It’s perfect. He wishes it would never end.

The feeling of Sehun’s cock pulsing, shooting inside him, coupled with the twist of Sehun’s wrist, drags Baekhyun over the edge too, and he comes all over his stomach, whimpering his way through it.

Sehun lays atop him, his knot keeping them tied.

For a moment, all he can hear is the sound of their labored breathing, but eventually, it settles, Sehun relaxing against him, and Baekhyun grins.

“That was really good,” Baekhyun says.

“Always is,” Sehun says.

“Goddess, it is,” Baekhyun says, and he rests his hands on the small of Sehun’s back, content.

“I’m not crushing you, am I?” Sehun asks, pushing up momentarily before Baekhyun drags him back down to his body.

“No,” Baekhyun says. “I like it like this.”

He feels Sehun smile against his hair.

“I love you,” Sehun says.  

“I love you,” Baekhyun answers.

“We should probably head home soon,” Sehun says, but he doesn’t make any moves, knot still splitting Baekhyun open, so Baekhyun doesn’t move either.

They don’t speak much, waiting for the knot to go down. They just hold each other. Tender. Soft. And eventually, when Sehun _can_ slide out of him, Baekhyun groaning brokenly, he still doesn’t move to go home. He just gathers Baekhyun into his arms so that they can stare up at the stars.

They listen, quiet, to the sounds of the night as it sets around them. The gentle purr of the shadow-cats. The singing of the cicadas. Baekhyun feels himself drifting, pulled into sleep by the warmth of Sehun’s arms and the music all around them.

“Goddess, tell me we aren’t going to sleep outside again,” Baekhyun whines.

“We won’t,” Sehun says, but Baekhyun knows him well enough now that he can hear the lie.

“Dumb puppy,” Baekhyun yawns.

Before he can chide Sehun further for not dragging them both home, his eyes flutter closed.

He doesn’t open them until morning.

 

 

☽

 

 

The sun makes him stir, the oppressive light making it hard to keep his eyes closed through it.

He groans, cuddles his way into the nook of Sehun’s arm and his body, relishing in the warmth, and closes his eyes again. He _feels_ Sehun stir only moments later, feels him stretch out his arms and legs in one great tense of his body and then feels him relax back into the earth.

“Omega,” Sehun says gently, his voice still rough with the morning.

Baekhyun doesn’t answer, just squeezes his eyes closed.

“Baekhyun,” Sehun says, and still Baekhyun doesn’t answer.

Sehun shuffles him around, rearranges Baekhyun’s body until Sehun is leaning over him, staring.

“Yah, stop pretending to sleep,” Sehun orders, and he flicks Baekhyun on the arm.

“Ow,” Baekhyun says, eyes still shut tight, “stop flicking me.”

“Then wake up,” Sehun says.

Baekhyun finally opens his eyes, sees Sehun smiling over him.

“Fine,” he says. “Happy?”

“Very happy,” Sehun says, and he lays back down, Baekhyun gathered in his arms. “It’s still early. We have time to go bathe and dress before post.”

“Okay,”  Baekhyun says, but he makes no effort to move.

“We can lay here for a little while, I guess,” Sehun says. Baekhyun is thankful for him, thankful in new ways that he discovers every day. “I can’t believe we’re Tied.”

“Was it everything you dreamed of since you were a little puppy?” Baekhyun teases.

“Yes,” Sehun says, so genuine. “I got Tied to you, so it was all I dreamed of and more.”

He has a special way of stealing the arrogance from Baekhyun’s mouth.

“Me too,” Baekhyun says.

“I’m glad we did it,” Sehun says, and he kisses the top of Baekhyun’s head.

“Me too,” Baekhyun says. “Do you want to wear rings?”

“I’d end up losing it, I think,” Sehun says sheepishly. “But I thought maybe we could…”

“Could…?”

“Maybe we could get the paint together,” Sehun suggests. “Jongin is pretty good with a needle. And he always gives Mercy tea beforehand, so you barely even feel it.”

Baekhyun considers it. He’s always liked the paint. Liked the permanence of it. The symbols. The colors. It’s usually the hunters, alphas and omegas who get the stories of their heroism and bravery stamped into their skin forever, an indelible display of their value to the pack.

He’s just never thought of himself ever getting the paint. Never thought himself worthy of it.

“I’d want to feel it,” Baekhyun says.

“Does that mean you want to do it?” Sehun asks, delighted.

“What would you want to get?” Baekhyun says.

“I don’t know,” Sehun said. “I hadn’t really gotten that far.”

It doesn’t take Baekhyun long to figure it out.

“Would you get a violet?” Baekhyun asks.

Sehun smiles.

“Would you get a bell-root?” Sehun asks.

“Yes,” Baekhyun says, and he hugs Sehun close to him. “Yes.”

They hold each other. It’s a simple joy, the simplest joy in Baekhyun’s life: to hold and be held by the wolf he loves.

“Thank you,” Sehun says.

“For what?” Baekhyun says.

“For finally being mine,” Sehun tells him.

Baekhyun laughs. He doesn’t know how to tell Sehun the absolute truth of it. 

He’s never been anything other than Sehun’s.


	20. up

☾  _epilogue_ ☽

 

Baekhyun lays the bluebear fur over her and fights back a stray tear. He’s not worried. Truly, he isn’t. The Lady has been so kind to them, and he is so grateful for their many, many moons of happiness. He just knows that he will miss her dearly while she Sleeps.

“ _Father,_ ” she says, rolling her eyes.

“Hush now,” Baekhyun says, wiping at his face. “You just lay there, stay quiet, and be good, as instructed.”

A smirk plays across her lips, one she inherited from her _other_ father. They were always too soft with her when she was growing up. She was their little miracle, a sign that they’d made it through the darkness, so they treated her like she was made of the stars, of the Father’s light, of the Lady’s glow.

Now, she is a cocky little alpha, with a biting tongue and no filter. She’s tall and lean like Sehun, with corded muscles lining her arms and legs. She’s a talented fighter, Baekhyun knows. Even though he tried to keep her out of the fights, even though he threatened the boys who would challenge her, she was always fighting anyway. And always holding her own.

She’s pretty, too: long blue-black hair that stays pin straight even in the hottest, most humid summers, only going waved when she lets her hair dry in braids. Her eyes are so dark brown they look black, and her smile is straight and white. She looks so much like Sehun that, if Baekhyun didn’t know better, he’d think he had nothing to do with her creation.

“What are you staring at?” she says, eyeing him wearily.

“My snotty alpha pup,” Baekhyun says. “I told you to stay quiet.”

“I thought this was supposed to be a solemn affair,” she says, and she picks at her nails. “I mean, Appa did say that you would cry, but I didn’t know you’d be yelling at me the whole time too.”

“First, Appa doesn’t know anything about anything,” Baekhyun says. “Second, I told you to stay quiet.”

“Fine, fine,” she says, and she lays there, stock still.

He is going to miss her so much, so much that his bones ache with it.

“When you were born,” Baekhyun says, “we weren’t ready for you.”

“That’s rich,” she interjects, “considering you’re always telling me to stay away from the omegas.”

“Yah,” Baekhyun says, and he flicks her on the forehead, “by the time we were _blessed_ with you, we were already mated, Slept, and Tied.”

She grumbles, something that sounds an awful lot like _tradition,_ but Baekhyun lets it slide.

“We weren’t ready for you,” he repeats, “but we were so happy to have you. It was very hard, at first, getting used to taking care of someone else, but it became so much easier so fast. Do you know why?”

“Why?” she asks, her chin raised.

“Because we loved you,” Baekhyun says simply. “We fell in love with you. And we haven’t stopped loving you since. It only grew as you got older. You were so sweet. You wanted to know everything about everything. Such a cute puppy, everyone always stopped us to talk about how pretty you were. The perfect little pup.”

“Father,” she says, and she wipes at her own eyes this time. “Quit it.”

“I just wanted you to know that, no matter what you see, I will be here when you wake,” Baekhyun says. “You are my only child, and I will never let anything bad happen to you.”

She breathes in, shaky for a moment, before her smile glitters at him.

“What about when that snow deer bit me?” she laughs.

“Your own damn fault,” Baekhyun gripes. “You must have been doing something bad, snow deer are gentle creatures.”

His daughter laughs, but when the laughter fades out, she stares at him like she’s looking right into his heart.

“I love you,” she says. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be okay.”

“I know,” Baekhyun says.

Baekhyun’s heart jumps as she sits up and puts a hand on his with a gentle smile.

He grabs the bowl from the table. He has done this dozens of times now, but his hand shakes.

“Mother, father,” he prays, eyes staring up like maybe if he looks to them, they’ll hear him better, “protect my daughter. Keep her safe while she sleeps. Show her what she needs see. And return her to me when she is finished. I trust you. I have faith in you. I pray. I beg. Hear me.”

He puts the bowl at her lips, and she drinks with no hesitation.

“I’ll see you when I wake up,” she says. “I hope I have all kinds of funny stories to tell you.”

“Hush,” he says, and he tucks her back into bed. “Dream. Sleep.”

 

 

 ☽

 

 

Sehun arrives moments later, soon enough that Baekhyun hasn’t even picked up his flowers from the table beside him, soon enough that Baekhyun is still staring at his daughter, fresh into her Sleep.  

“Ah, just missed it,” he says. “I was hoping to catch at least a bit of the end.”

“It’s okay,” Baekhyun says. “She knows you’re here.”

“How’d it go?” Sehun asks.

“It went well,” Baekhyun says. “Except she told me what you said.”

“That you’d cry?” Sehun smiles.

“Yes,” Baekhyun says, and he punches him in the shoulder. “You awful pup.”

“Well, did you?” Sehun asks.

“That’s not the point!” Baekhyun says.

Sehun gathers Baekhyun up into his arms, despite Baekhyun’s flailing, Baekhyun’s arms get trapped alongside his body, Sehun squeezing him tight.

“Let go of me, you big brute,” Baekhyun yells.

“No,” Sehun says, and he nuzzles his way into Baekhyun’s neck to kiss at his mate mark. “Love you.”

“Love you,” Baekhyun says begrudgingly.

“There you go,” Sehun says.

And Baekhyun would normally fight, but his eyes rest on his daughter, so he doesn’t fight, just stands there and lets himself be held.

“Are you worried?” Sehun asks.

“No,” Baekhyun lies.

“Ah,” Sehun says in the voice he always uses when he knows Baekhyun is lying. “Well, I’m a little worried.”

Baekhyun turns in Sehun’s arms.

“Really?” Baekhyun asks.

“Of course,” Sehun says. “I think it’s normal to be a little afraid, after what we’ve been through.”

“Hm,” Baekhyun says. “I guess you’re right.”

“It’ll be okay, though,” Sehun says. “We have each other, and soon, we’ll have her back too.”

Baekhyun swings back around in the embrace, hands on Sehun’s resting on his stomach. He looks at Hana, at her peaceful little smile.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun says. “We will.”

 

 

☾ 

 

 

Baekhyun fell asleep.

He can’t believe he fell asleep.

“Love,” Sehun says, shaking him by the shoulder. “Love.”

“Goddess,” Baekhyun says, shaking himself out of it, blinking away the exhaustion, before slapping Sehun on the shoulder. “You silly puppy. Why’d you let me fall asleep?”

“You needed it,” Sehun says. “It’s been nearly a moon, and you haven’t slept through the night once.”

Baekhyun plays with the stems of the flowers in his hands, now dried.

“I’ve no need for sleep,” Baekhyun argues.

“Everyone has need for sleep,” Sehun says, and he plays with Baekhyun’s hair.

“Where is the Lady?” he asks.

“Rising,” Sehun says. “Should be soon.”

Tears well in Baekhyun's eyes.

“Baekhyun,” Sehun says. “You trust her.”

“I do,” Baekhyun says. “I do trust her.”

So they stare at the sky, wait for her to take her place high above them. They sit at the edge of Hana’s bed, each holding one of her hands, and they watch the Lady from the window. When she hits the apex, they hold their breath.

Both of their eyes sweep to Hana, fear in their throats.

They wait. They wait.

They wait, wait, wait.

It feels endless, it feels eternal. Feels like the edge of a storm, waiting for the rain to fall. Feels like waiting for clouds to pass so the sun can shine again. Feels like waiting for spring buds to bloom. Feels like waiting for snows to melt.

They wait.

And then she gasps awake, sitting up so fast Baekhyun thinks she might tumble over and take them both with her.  

“Father,” she says to Baekhyun, still panting, a smile bright on her face. She turns to Sehun. “Appa. Did you guys miss me?”

 _Praise the Goddess_ , Baekhyun thinks. _Praise Her._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [squints up at the sky] new moon tonight. i think thats why ao3 went down lmao they knew i was planning on wrapping up tonight. 
> 
> anyway, there it is! the journey is finally complete! 
> 
> i dont want to get too emotional, but its really bittersweet that this story is finished! i spent a lot of time writing and rewriting, editing and tweaking seemingly inconsequential things, even just moments before i posted these final chapters! i started writing this almost exactly two months ago and its been really rewarding to not only see it through to completion, but to also see your reactions to it. 
> 
> and even tho sometimes i struggled or felt like garbage, i've also had a lot of fun over the past two months, and i owe it all to you! 
> 
> from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your kindness. thank you for the generosity of your spirit. thank you for the time and energy you've spent reading and commenting. and most of all, thank you for giving to this dumb story about magic wolf boys in love a chance. i may be a writer, but i can't express in words how much i appreciate it. 
> 
> if you're interested in my work, you can follow me on twitter @wolfsupremacist. i hope to start another chaptered story soon, but i don't really know when that will pick up. if you have prompts that you'd like to see filled, no matter the pairing, you can throw it at me in comments, through twitter, or through my curiouscat. also, i just posted a sebaek one-shot last night, so if you want to give that a read, well, that'd be just swell. 
> 
> once more, for the final time in the sweet sleep series, thank you for reading. have a good week! and also! i love you!

**Author's Note:**

> tags will be updated as the story progresses. that sounds like a thing people say.


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